An exquisite novel of North Africans in Paris by "one of the most original and necessary voices in world literature"Paris, Summer 2010.Zahira is 40 years old, Moroccan, a prostitute, traumatized by her father's suicide decades prior, and in love with a man who no longer loves her.Zannouba, Zahira's friend and protege, formerly known as Aziz, prepares for gender confirmation surgery and reflects on the reoccuring trauma of loss, including the loss of her pre-transition male persona.Mojtaba is a gay Iranian revolutionary who, having fled to Paris, seeks refuge with Zahira for the month of Ramadan.Meanwhile, Allal, Zahira's first love back in Morocco, travels to Paris to find Zahira.Through swirling, perpendicular narratives, A Country for Dying follows the inner lives of emigrants as they contend with the space between their dreams and their realities, a schism of a postcolonial world where, as Taïa writes, "So many people find themselves...

Set in Salé, Morocco--the hometown Abdellah Taïa fled but to which he returns again and again in his acclaimed fiction and films--Infidels follows the life of Jallal, the son of a prostitute witch doctor--"a woman who knew men, humanity, better than anyone. In Sex. Beyond Sex." As a ten-year-old sidekick to his mother, Jallal spits in the face of her enemies both real and imagined.The cast of characters that rush into their lives are unforgettable for their dreams of love and belonging that unravel in turn. Built as a series of monologues that are emotionally relentless--a mix of confession, heart's murmuring, and shouting match--the book follows Jallal out of boyhood on the path to Jihad. It's a path that surprises even him.From the Hardcover edition.