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Others who have spent time in the city include Tennessee Williams, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Jean Genet , Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Juan Goytisolo. A few years ago, Mohamed Choukri wrote three short books about his relationships with Genet , Williams and Paul Bowles – the three expatriate authors he knew best. These books are collected in “In Tangier ” and are a fascinating, and sometimes disturbing, reflection on art, collaboration and power.
If I don’t have time for day trips, what books could take me there instead? The classic by Driss Chraibi “The simple past” — published in 1954, when Morocco was about to regain its independence — takes place in Casablanca and Fez. It’s a gripping novel , full of violence and beauty, about a teenager ’s rebellion against his tea-merchant father (referred to throughout the book as “the Lord”) and the French administrators who run the country. The encounter with Chraibi ’s work as a teenager was an important part of my literary training, and he has remained a reference ever since.
Another book that I often recommend is “The Year of the Elephant” by Leila Abouzeid , translated from Arabic by Barbara Parmenter, which talks about an anti- colonial activist from Rabat whose husband divorces suddenly and without explanation. Abouzeid writes with great heart and spirituality about independence, identity and reinvention.
by Meryem Alaoui “ Straight from the horse’s mouth ” follows a Casablanca sex worker who is offered a role in a Dutch film. Translated from French by Emma Ramadan, the novel is told in the form of a diary, in a tone that is both dark and funny.
For a wide selection of contemporary short stories, you can also read The Common’s special issue on the stories and art of Morocco , which includes work by Malika Moustadraf and Mohamed Zafzaf.
What should I read for a broader historical perspective? “The Travels of Ibn Battuta .” In 1325, a young Amazigh named Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta left Tangier for Mecca. Instead of returning home after completing his pilgrimage, he continued east, traveling some 75,000 miles over the next three decades – a journey apparently longer than that of Marco Polo. At the end of his life, Ibn Battuta finally returns to Tangier and writes – or rather dictates – his travelogue .
I was inspired by Ibn Battuta ’s travelogue style for my novel “The Moor’s Account”, which is based on the true story of Estebanico – an enslaved black man from Morocco who was brought to Florida on a colonial expedition in 1528, but soon found himself stranded in America with three Spanish nobles.
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