Eland are proud to reissue this compassionate novel. First published in French in 1999, but as timely and relevant today, on a subject rarely out of the news. Binebine is one of Morocco’s leading literary voices and artists and we welcome him to the Eland list.
A writer, says Mahi Binebine, is ‘a sponge’ forever soaking up ‘rumours, passed-down tall tales and family lore.’ Like any good storyteller, Mahi Binebine is a magpie; constantly foraging the streets of Marrakech, newspapers, and what happens in his own life, for stories he might weave into his hypnotic tales. As a young boy he would cross the Djemaa el Fna on his way to school. It was then that Mahi first witnessed the lives of the artists making their living on the square: snake charmers, street performers, merchants, beggars, migrants, and the legendary Moroccan figure of the storyteller.
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Read MoreCould the world possibly need another book festival? It turns out that the answer is yes, but not for the reasons you might imagine. It’s always fun for authors to meet some of their readers after the solitary process of writing, but the inaugural festival in Marrakesh turned out to be much richer than that.
Dar Cherifa is a far cry from even the most elegant of book festival tents – one of the oldest courtyard houses in the Marrakesh medina, it dates to the 16th-century and radiates age and distinction from its ornate tiles, plaster and beautiful carved wood. No doubt rising to the challenge of the historic setting, Eland publisher Barnaby Rogerson sits on a table in the courtyard to give a breathtaking exploration of the ancient history of north Africa, ranging from Queen Dido to St Augustine and a number of Berber kings in between. The audience are amazed and delighted that anyone from Europe should know so much about their homegrown heroes, and the vibe is one of mounting mutual respect. When the afternoon call to prayer interrupts Barnaby’s flow, he sits in contemplative silence, simply acknowledging the supremacy of his host culture in a way that endears him even more. The scene is set for an extraordinary weekend of subtle exchange.
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Read MoreIntroduced by Barnaby Rogerson
One of the finest British travel books of the twentieth century is Gavin Maxwell’s Lords of the Atlas. It is a book that inspired me as a teenager to travel, and later on to write about North Africa. I must have now read it half a dozen times, with its magic enhanced by each reading. In other books, Gavin Maxwell writes freely about his own life, his family and experiences, but in Lords of the Atlas he hardly appears in the text, the better to focus the narrative on the experience of the Moroccans. Aside from his own researches, Gavin Maxwell was clearly inspired by two travel writers, Walter Harris (especially Morocco that Was) and the three Moroccan books written by the Tharaud brothers.
Jérôme and Jean Tharaud were faithful and truthful observers, dependent on their own experiences which they relate with empathy, but also the sharp eye of actual observation. They were also French, so could not pretend to be innocent observers of the modernization of Morocco through colonial conquest, even when camouflaged as a ‘Protectorate’. However I think you will agree that the extraordinary veracity of their eyewitness accounts, preserves for us the true history of Morocco. We are grateful to Anthony Gladstone-Thompson for making the first ever translation of these books from their original French into a fresh, clear English which Eland is proud to publish.
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