Novel
The Game of Forgetting
لعبة النسيان
Mohammed Berrada · 1987
Synopsis
Al-Hadi, an intellectual disappointed by Morocco's political life, returns to Fez when his mother, Lalla Ghalia, dies; she had gone to Rabat to look after her grandchildren. The old house, where all the women regarded her as “the mother”, brings back his memories: his uncle Tayeb, who raised him for want of a child of his own, the death of that uncle's wife, mingled with images of the war, then Lalla Rabia, the beloved whose loss leaves him crushed. Several voices take up these scenes, between the end of the protectorate and the first years of independence.
Context
The novel appeared in Rabat from Dar al-Aman in 1987, or as early as 1986. Its polyphonic construction has been stressed, and Arab World Books notes that it begins with an ending, that of the mother, followed by several false starts. Abdellatif Ghouirgate and Yves Gonzalez-Quijano translated it into French for Actes Sud, in 1992 according to the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in January 1993 according to the publisher; Issa J. Boullata gave the English version in 1996, from the University of Texas Press, and a Spanish translation appeared in 1993.
Who it is for
A short novel, of about one hundred and fifty pages in the Arabic edition, carried by several voices; available in French from Actes Sud.
Prizes and reception
Forty-sixth on the list of the hundred best Arabic novels; translated into French, English and Spanish.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.