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The Sacred Night

Tahar Ben Jelloun
translated by Alan Sheridan
Publication Date
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The haunting continuation of The Sand Child, Ben Jelloun concludes Ahmed's, now Zahra's, journey.

Winner of the 1987 Prix Goncourt

The Sacred Night continues the remarkable story Tahar Ben Jelloun began in The Sand Child. Mohammed Ahmed, a Moroccan girl raised as a boy in order to circumvent Islamic inheritance laws regarding female children, remains deeply conflicted about her identity. In a narrative that shifts in and out of reality moving between a mysterious present and a painful past, Ben Jelloun relates the events of Ahmed's adult life. Now calling herself Zahra, she renounces her role as...

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The haunting continuation of The Sand Child, Ben Jelloun concludes Ahmed's, now Zahra's, journey.

Winner of the 1987 Prix Goncourt

The Sacred Night continues the remarkable story Tahar Ben Jelloun began in The Sand Child. Mohammed Ahmed, a Moroccan girl raised as a boy in order to circumvent Islamic inheritance laws regarding female children, remains deeply conflicted about her identity. In a narrative that shifts in and out of reality moving between a mysterious present and a painful past, Ben Jelloun relates the events of Ahmed's adult life. Now calling herself Zahra, she renounces her role as only son and heir after her father's death and journeys through a dreamlike Moroccan landscape.

A searing allegorical portrait of North African society, The Sacred Night uses Arabic fairy tales and surrealist elements to craft a stunning and disturbing vision of protest and rebellion against the strictures of hidebound traditions governing gender roles and sexuality.

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Reviews

Impressive... Though [the story] suggests a number of allegorical interpretations, the surface of the narrative proceeds with enough sheer pleasure and lack of pretension to deeper meanings to ensure that these are rarely overt... Gender, sexuality, the cultures they impose, and the restrictions imposed on them by cultures, are a form of imprisonment; yet so, too, is the attempt to evade them.

— Times Literary Supplement

Haunting, often hallucinogenic.

— Los Angeles Times

A writer of much originality.

— Chicago Tribune
About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
5.5
x
8.5
Pages
192
ISBN
9780801864414
DOI
Subject
Table of Contents

Preamble
Chapter 1. Inventory
Chapter 2. Night of Destiny
Chapter 3. A Beautiful Day
Chapter 4. The Perfumed Garden
Chapter 5. The Mirrors of Time
Chapter 6. A Dagger Caressing My Back
Chapter 7. The Seated

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Preamble
Chapter 1. Inventory
Chapter 2. Night of Destiny
Chapter 3. A Beautiful Day
Chapter 4. The Perfumed Garden
Chapter 5. The Mirrors of Time
Chapter 6. A Dagger Caressing My Back
Chapter 7. The Seated Woman
Chapter 8. The Consul
Chapter 9. The Pact
Chapter 10. A Soul Defeated
Chapter 11. A Confusion of Feelings
Chapter 12. The Consul's Room
Chapter 13. A Lake of Heavy Water
Chapter 14. The Brothel Charade
Chapter 15. The Murder
Chapter 16. In The Darkness
Chapter 17. The Letter
Chapter 18. Ashes and Blood
Chapter 19. The Forgotten
Chapter 20. My Story, My Prison
Chapter 21. Hell
Chapter 22. The Saint

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Author Bios
Tahar Ben Jelloun
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Tahar Ben Jelloun

Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in Fez, Morocco, in 1944 and has lived in France since 1971. An internationally recognized novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist, Ben Jelloun has received numerous awards for his works, including the Prix Maghreb, the Prix des Hemispheres and the Legion of Honor. His books include Solitaire, Silent Day in Tangier, With Downcast Eyes, Corruption, and Racism Explained...
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