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Overview
From one of the world's great writers, a breakthrough novel about leaving home for a better life
In his new novel, award-winning, internationally bestselling author Tahar Ben Jelloun tells the story of a Moroccan brother and sister making new lives for themselves in Spain. Azel is a young man in Tangier who dreams of crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. When he meets Miguel, a wealthy Spaniard, he leaves behind his girlfriend, his sister, Kenza, and his mother, and moves with him to Barcelona, where Kenza eventually joins them. What they find there forms the heart of this novel of seduction and betrayal, deception and disillusionment, in which Azel and Kenza are reminded powerfully not only of where they've come from, but also of who they really are.
Synopsis
From one of the world's great writers, a breakthrough novel about leaving home for a better life
In his new novel, award-winning, internationally bestselling author Tahar Ben Jelloun tells the story of a Moroccan brother and sister making new lives for themselves in Spain. Azel is a young man in Tangier who dreams of crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. When he meets Miguel, a wealthy Spaniard, he leaves behind his girlfriend, his sister, Kenza, and his mother, and moves with him to Barcelona, where Kenza eventually joins them. What they find there forms the heart of this novel of seduction and betrayal, deception and disillusionment, in which Azel and Kenza are reminded powerfully not only of where they've come from, but also of who they really are.
The New York Times - Alison McCulloch
Whether they are leaving, trying to leave or being left behind, all the characters in this penetrating tale, translated from the French by Linda Coverdale, come to suffer what Ben Jelloun has called the "wounds of migration."
Editorials
Dennis Drabelle
…short but ambitious …Artful and compassionate, Leaving Tangier evokes a milieu of self-exile and great expectations in relatively few pages.—The Washington Post
Alison McCulloch
Whether they are leaving, trying to leave or being left behind, all the characters in this penetrating tale, translated from the French by Linda Coverdale, come to suffer what Ben Jelloun has called the "wounds of migration."—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
As several expatriate Moroccans learn in Jelloun's latest, it doesn't matter how difficult life may be in the home country, a whole new set of difficulties waits in the promised land. Most of the novel focuses on Azel, a young Tangier native and a self-described "Arab who doesn't like himself." Desperate to escape, Azel agrees to become the object of affection for a wealthy Spaniard named Miguel, who takes him in after a brutal police beating. Leaving behind his family and girlfriend for the good life he's imagined in Spain, he soon learns that daydreams can be misleading-and that the life he's always wanted is causing him, despite his benefactor's best intentions, to self-destruct. Before long, Azel's sister Kenza, a nurse, weds Miguel to gain Spanish citizenship, then falls in love with an expatriate Turk who comes with his own set of problems. This harsh, unsentimental view of the risks and regrets of emigration-as well as the stunning realities of life under Islam law-is a stark, straightforward tale that readers can't help getting caught up. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
An International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner for his previous novel, This Blinding Absence of Light, Ben Jelloun here examines the notion of emigration as a means to escape adversity. Already a best seller in France, this work centers on Azel, a young Moroccan man who, though well educated, is unable to fulfill his promise in Tangier's corrupt society and thus dreams of leaving Morocco for Spain. He encounters Miguel, a wealthy Spaniard, who offers to help Azel obtain a visa if he agrees to work for him in Barcelona. Miguel later agrees to marry Azel's sister, Kenza, so that she, too, can emigrate. Once they arrive in Spain, however, loneliness and disappointment lead to a desire to return. Although this is mainly Azel's story, Ben Jelloun places it in the context of the protagonist's friends and acquaintances, some of whom have emigrated or tried to emigrate while others have stayed. Their connection to Azel gives the novel a realistic and relatable quality. A captivating study of one man's search for identity in terms of sexuality, religion, values, nationality, and class; recommended for all fiction collections.
—Cristella Bond