A Workshop to Produce Terrorism.

Unexpectedly and as literature has always taught us, Secret Son, a debut novel of the Moroccan-American writer Laila Lalami, omits the cover of the real origin of the shaky universal issue, terrorism. Her belief goes beyond the normal familiar religious and ideological background which no doubt enriches to some extent the phenomenon.

Living in America, Lalami, comes back to the Moroccan metropolis of Casablanca to dig into the miserable life of the people living there. She chooses the name of Youssef El Meki for her novel as the hero. Youssef is a very simple student studying English Literature in the faculty aiming at changing his situation as well as his mother's through studying.

Youssef does not know his father, and we all know the status and value of a father in a patriarchal society, which is the reason of entitling this book this way: Secret Son. He lives with his mother on the suburbs of Casablanca in a neighborhood known as "Hay Najat" this could be translated as "the district of survival". Ironically enough the district is one of death not survival. People are dying of hunger, mistreatment, and generally bad living conditions where no adequate buses, taxis, schools or hospitals are there. People are struggling to guarantee what to feed their children each day. "Hay Najat" guarantees all the necessary conditions to turn into a bomb.

Things become worst after discovering that his mother was lying telling him that his father passed away while he was truly living a luxurious bourgeois life with his wife and daughter enjoying their fortune. His father is a member of the wealthy Moroccan well-known family "El Amrani" enjoying a life of money with young girls in Casablanca.

Accidentally, Youssef meets his father and lives with him in a very nice apartment in an elegant neighborhood in the lively center of the city. Youssef forgets everything miserable in his life and focus on enjoying his new status as the son of "El Amrani". Youssef indulged fully in the new mode of life where everything needed is there. He forgets even the mom that held him for long sad days to make out of him what he is now.

The clash will be after coming back to "Hay Najat" when the father's wife discovers his relationship to Youssef which pushes her to refuse his presence in their life. Youssef had to come back to his mother's shelter. Here he will encounter some people who will exploit his situation for attacking one of the biggest hotels in the city.

The hotel is Youssef's father ownership, another irony indeed. How could you possibly attack something that you might even yourself benefit from? Here, injustice is a small factory producing death. Youssef has a sister living in America and really enjoying the modern life with her boyfriend receiving money from her father to build herself there. Youssef, the son of the same man, is struggling to get something to eat.

The only thing left is to guarantee a place in paradise. Unjustly, some people enjoy paradise while they are in life while are in hell. This is in fact a very strong reason to turn Youssef into a bomb able to explode at any certain moment. While Youssef was with his father he did not dare to think about these things, he was committed to live his life and had no time to even meet people of this type.

Youssef is just a prototype of hundreds of people who either throw themselves to the ocean attempting to reach Europe or any other country away of Morocco. The father is a representation of dozens of people enjoying the countries' riches to the bone leaving part of them die pitilessly.

It's only injustice, ignorance, poverty, contempt, and hatred that produce more hatred spiced with some religious and ideological reasons. Instead of fighting people and spreading more military forces, we should work on human development to guarantee a strong logical opinion enriched with adequate living conditions. This way we are fighting the source of terrorism.

A very simple novel engaging in the discussion of very interesting topics. The added value should be that we are in front of a Moroccan writer who lived in a country that suffered of terrorism and a potential country producing terrorism. I personally recommend this novel to have a certain vision from another stance.

Enjoy!