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Nassiby Min Paris (My love from Paris) by: Ahmed El-Madini, Cairo: Al-Dar Al-Masriah Allubnaniah, 2014. 280pp Ahram Online
*The latest novel from the famed Moroccan author reflects on love, writing and other Arab authors in 1960s Paris *
Ahram Online (January 18, 2014) —It seems that nearly every author passed through Paris in the mid-20th century. The ones we hear about, though, are mostly European, or American, those coming from points further west. So what about those coming from the east, the Arab authors who also flocked to the City of Light, looking for the same thing as all the others: love, or inspiration, which can add up to the same thing when it comes to being a writer.
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This is the premise of Moroccan author Ahmed Al-Madini’s latest novel, Nassiby Min Paris (My Love from Paris), recently published by Al-Dar Al-Masriah Allubaniah.
It tells of the author’s love affairs and friendships in Paris, the city he considers a fundamental experience of every Arab author during the 1960s.
Interestingly, Al-Madini spares us the accounts of the friendships he made with the French. Instead, he focuses on the other Arab writers he met there – Iraqi author Shaker Nouri, Egyptian poet Ahmed Abdel-Moati Hegazi, the Jordanian-born Saudi author Abdelrahman Munif, whose five-part sprawling novel Cities of Salt was banned in the Gulf kingdom for its honest portrayal of the Arab peninsula succumbing to the temptations brought on by the discovery of oil.
The novel begins with his birth into a religious family in Morocco, and then follows his journey to Algeria and finally Paris.
An accomplished author who was awarded Morocco’s National Book Award in 2003, Al-Madini has published eight short story collections, eight novels, two poetry collections, and five volumes of cultural essays, one in French.
The post New Release: ‘My love from Paris’ by Moroccan author Ahmed Al-Madini – Ahram Online appeared first on Morocco On The Move.
