Leïla Slimani

Read Around the World. Morocco.

In the Country of Others is a historical fiction by Moroccan author Leïla Slimani, set in Morocco in the 1940s and 1950s. It is the first book of a trilogy.

French Catholic Mathilde meets handsome Muslim Moroccan soldier Amine Belhaj in 1944 when he is stationed in Alsace fighting for the French in WWII. The two fall in love and after the war Mathilde moves from Strasbourg to Rabat, Morocco, to start what she envisages to be a romantic adventurous exotic life. The reality is somewhat different, and she struggles with the hot, dusty isolation and confines of her new life. On the one hand she is shunned by the French for marrying a Moroccan and the locals perceive her to be a foreigner. Amine shifts from being the romantic hero to a controlling, abusive workaholic determined to get ahead. He also is torn between his sympathies with his countrymen (including his brother Oman) who are pushing for independence and his loyalties to the French who he fought for.

Their daughter Aïcha also struggles at the Catholic school she attends with the cruelty of children towards those they perceive as different or other. Mathilde rages at the confines of her life and finally settles herself to giving medical aid to the villagers.

This book gives great insight into life in 1940s and 50s Morocco and the political climate of the time. My main problem was there was not one likeable character in the book. Mathilde varies from being petty and self absorbed to bizarre and almost deranged at times. Nonetheless, this was a worthwhile read but I’m not sure I’ll persist with the sequels.… (mais)

This book is precisely what the front cover announces - a personal recount of women's experiences in Morocco in regard to sexuality.

There were no surprises here. The stories we read about are hard to comprehend from a "western" perspective. Sadly, they got repetitive rather quickly with a narrative that seemed to have been pushed onto this to prove a point. I expected more variety in this book, maybe even some positive tales. However, this is not that type of book.

Slimani rightly calls out the hypocrisy of a society oscillating between sexual fantasies and disgust when it comes to sexuality, where religion always has the final word. The obsession with virginity is the norm, while men are among the highest consumers of pornography in the world.

But, more interestingly Slimani says that as long as you are rich you are free, above these laws and mores. Sadly, that seems true for women wherever they are in this world.… (mais)