A Spaniard with literary aspirations, bored with his own country, travels to Morocco in search of adventure. Surrounded by obscure hostilities, he finds himself incapable of facing the dangers or escaping from his predicament.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Manuel, the narrator of this strange, haunting first novel by Spanish author Chirbes, is a struggling, bisexual novelist who comes to Morocco to escape the pressures of life in Madrid. Seeking peace and quiet in which to write, he moves to a town in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains and commutes to Fez, where he teaches Spanish at the university. Overwhelmed by the exoticism and loneliness of a new culture, he gradually stops writing, and begins to drink heavily and to break down. His no less neurotic circle of European friends finds itself at odds with the local authorities and with mysterious thugs, and finally Manuel is forced to leave Morocco. In echoes of Paul Bowles and with an unrelenting honesty, Chirbes chronicles Manuel's disintegration into alcoholic and sexual excess. The book reads a bit like a stranger's diary in which the inner life of the protagonist is casually revealed to the reader in hints and fragments. Manuel is ruthless in his self-evaluation, never maudlin or self-pitying. Instead, his tone is shot through with an eerie calm that many readers will find disturbing. Not to all tastes, but an impressive debut.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish
Original Language: Spanish
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A Spaniard tries to lose himself in a small town in Morocco.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mimoun (Masks) (Paperback)
Very thought provoking. I read it in the original, don't know how good the translation is. Enjoyed his other book "La Larga Marcha" even more. The history of several Spanish families after the civil war and up to the student uprisings in Franco's Spain. Chirbes evokes other times and other places well, and has a great gift of making his charachters, as diverse as they are, very real.
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First Sentence:
When I took that hasty decision to live in Morocco I did not imagine that, in a country I had toured on several occasions and which had always seemed to be a desert, it could rain so much. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sidi Mohammed, Abd-el Jaq, Bou Iblan, Plantain Boulevard, Atlas Square New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
When I took that hasty decision to live in Morocco I did not imagine that, in a country I had toured on several occasions and which had always seemed to be a desert, it could rain so much. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sidi Mohammed, Abd-el Jaq, Bou Iblan, Plantain Boulevard, Atlas Square New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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