Novel · A way to begin
L'Amour impossible
Not translated into English
Moussa Ould Ebnou · 1990
Synopsis
In a future society, a war between the sexes has separated men and women: each lives apart, and children are born in incubators, boys for the one side, girls for the other. Only one practice survives, regulated by law: adolescents are presented to the other sex for an encounter with no sequel. During this first meeting, young Adam and the young woman intended for him fall in love, which is a crime; the authorities try to separate them, imposing other partners on them, then a re-education camp.
Context
The novel appeared in 1990 from L'Harmattan, as number 63 in the Encres noires series, and the publisher presented it as science fiction. The author translated it into Arabic himself, and this version appeared in Beirut in 1999 under the title Al-Hubb al-Mustahil. Critics compare it to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984. The author's second novel, Le Barzakh, in 1994, interweaves several periods, including the year 2045.
Who it is for
A science-fiction novel, in French, of one hundred and seventy-five pages; it can be read without knowing anything about Mauritania.
Prizes and reception
The Modern Novel judges it worthy of the great speculative novels that preceded it, and Onorient was still recommending it in 2017.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.