Global Arab Network | Institut Français presents: Tahar Ben Jelloun,‘Leaving Tangier’

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Institut Français presents: Tahar Ben Jelloun,‘Leaving Tangier’

Global Arab Network - - Maha Karim

Sunday, 10 May 2009 00:39

The latest book by one of North Africa’s most successful post colonial writers Tahar Ben Jelloun, Leaving Tangier is set in Tangier, in the early 90s. The protagonist, Azel, is one of a group of young Moroccans who gather regularly in a seafront café to gaze at the lights on the Spanish coast glimmering in the distance.

Facing a future with few prospects, their disillusionment is matched only by their desire to reach this paradise. At the brink of despair, Azel meets Miguel, a wealthy Spanish gallery-owner, who promises to take him to Barcelona, on condition that he becomes his lover. Seeing no other solution, Azel agrees and, leaving behind his girlfriend, embarks on a new life.

Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in 1944 in Fez, Morocco, and emigrated to France in 1961. A novelist, essayist, critic, and poet, he is a regular contributor to Le Monde, La Repubblica, El País, and Panorama.

He won the Prix Goncourt in 1987 for The Sacred Night, the 1994 Prix Maghreb, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2004 for This Blinding Absence of Light. He will be in conversation with Boyd Tonkin (Literary Editor, The Independent).

Friday 15th May at 7.30pm
Institut Français
17 Queensberry Place
London

Global Arab Network

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