Welcome to Paradise [Hardcover]

Mahi Binebine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003

The Strait of Gibraltar - the shortest point separating Europe and Africa. Fifteen kilometres of water across which, when the sun shines, Moroccan and Spanish towns can see each other as clear as day, and at night, when the surfers and the eco-tourists have gone, immigrant traffickers pit themselves against two sets of coast guard. Traffickers such as Morad - holding court at a back table in the Cafe France in Tangier, he allocates passengers to boatmen, collects fares, and regales prospective clients with dazzling stories of life in the North. The would-be migrants are a disparate group, held together only by their longing to be free. Kacem Djoudi, for instance, who has escaped from the civil war in Algeria; Nuara, with her newborn child, whose husband hasn't been in touch for months since moving to France; Pafadnam and Yarce, who have survived the brutal journey from Mali; Aziz, the young narrator, and his cousin Reda, severed, in different ways, from their families in southernmost Morocco. As the moment approaches for them to cross, it becomes clear not only how much they have overcome to get there, but also how much still awaits them. Tense, dramatic and blackly compassionate, Welcome to Paradise is a striking tale of human desperation, of countries bled dry of their people, and of media fantasies of Western life never to fulfill their promise.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Strait of Gibraltar: immigrant traffickers pit themselves against two sets of coast guards. Traffickers such as Morad who allocates passengers to boatmen and regales prospective clients with dazzling stories of life in the north. The would-be migrants are held together only by their longing to be free. Kacem has escaped from the civil war in Algeria; Nuara, with her newborn child, has lost touch with her husband; Pafadnam and Yarc have survived the brutal journey from Mali; Aziz, the young narrator severed from his family in Morocco. As the moment approaches for them to cross, it becomes clear not only how much they have overcome to get there, but also how much still awaits them. Tense and blackly compassionate, this is a striking tale of countries bled dry of their people, and of impossible media fantasies of Western life

About the Author

Mahi Binebine was born in Marrakech in 1959. He studied in Paris and taught mathematics, until he became recognised first as a painter, then as a novelist. Between 1994 - 1999 he lived in New York, when his paintings began to be acquired by the Guggenheim Museum. He now lives in Marrakech with his family.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 181 pages
• Publisher: Granta Books (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1862075174
• ISBN-13: 978-1862075177
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,419,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honors the dispossessed, June 29, 2003

By 

Charlie Dickinson (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Welcome to Paradise (Hardcover)

WELCOME TO PARADISE by Mahi BinebineEnglish translation from the French by Lulu Norman Granta Books, 2003, 181 pp., ISBN: 1-86207-517-4 The dispossessed of the world, for whom citizenship must seem utterly without value, often risk life and limb to gain a toehold of a meager living somewhere else. They might be Haitian boat people. They might be Mexican river waders. They might be, by one EU estimate for 2001, any of 500,000 illegal immigrants who left Ceuta, Spain--a postage-sized Spanish enclave on the Moroccan coast--and crossed the Mediterranean for the shores of Spain and greater Europe beyond.With WELCOME TO PARADISE, Morrocan writer Mahi Binebine gives us a stark tale, told in taut, evocative prose, about a group of North Africans at an undisclosed village on the north coast of Morocco who've gathered to make the Mediterranean crossing. All paid fortunes--by their dismal living standards--to jovial Morad (Momo), a go-between, who's made the journey to Europe--and been deported--three times. They wait in the dark on a cold beach for the word from their trafficker, who'll decide when to launch their row boat into a sometimes treacherous sea and past a possibly lurking Spanish coastguard.Chapter by chapter, while the silent trafficker, wrapped in his oilskin, apparently deliberates between go and no-go, we meet all the characters gathered in the cold night, ready to attempt the eight-mile crossing. Telling the story of how each person came to huddle in the dark is the story's youthful narrator, Aziz. He needs the courage of two to keep his nervous cousin Reda with him on this fateful adventure. Stories of desperation brought the two cousins from the interior of Morocco to the coast for this escape. Equally desperate, if differing in the details, are the stories of their companions: two Malians, Pafadman and Yarce, an Algerian, Kacem Judi, a Berber, Yussef, and a woman, Nuara, who brings with her the infant fathered by her husband she hopes to rejoin in Europe, though she hasn't heard from him for more than a year. In one sense, WELCOME TO PARADISE is a testament to what these eight human beings endured just to be able to make this risky voyage across open waters to a better life. As we approach that moment when the trafficker says, yes, and they actually push the boat into the water, we know in certain terms what is at stake for each.Needless to say, this fictional drama happens millions of times each year and it's a daily human struggle lost on many. The illegal immigrant, if successful, usually works invisibly among us; if not, it might be the carousel of deportation or in the shocking extreme, suffocation in a truck or freight container. Binebine succeeds admirably in being a witness and WELCOME TO PARADISE honors Aziz and his dispossessed companions everywhere for whom national borders are barriers to no less than survival. -- Charlie Dickinson 06/29/2003

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Paradise is Lost and Found., June 1, 2005

By 

Hadeel Altreiki "Hadeel Al.Treiki" (Paris) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Welcome to Paradise (Paperback)

This is the first novel of the Moroccan Mahi Binebine, and it reflects the rising genre and importance of Moroccan writers, especially immigrants who have decided to live, and write in foreign languages.

The story rotates around eight personalities, who seek a different life in distant European lands. Their story unites because simply they have the common element of traveling in a single framework of time. However, the similarities between them are deeper than mere yearning, want and need to be embraced by the European continent, and seek individuality and liberation. They differ in color, regional belonging, and mostly aspirations and dreams, which always intermingle and interchange. Each and everyone of them has a story to be narrated, a tale to be told, that unfolds and penetrates deep into the characters involved.

The novel as a whole has a high moral purpose; reflecting the life long lived misery of illegal immigrants, their suffering, the death of dreams, and the negative effects of poverty. However, the novel and its narrative often led to a strange sense of boredom and tediousness, which I personally think is the result of the author's background, and his diverse life style; from mathematician, to an artiste and a story teller and narrator. Probably this would have been a great short story, however, in a fully fledged novel it lacks coherence, in-depth, and vitality. Probably Binebine would have made a better impact if he would have concentrated on one character, experience and setting, rather than loose himself and the reader through 8 highly intertwined and complex characters. Probably the concentration on one or two would have granted the novel not only a human dimension, but also a focal point.

No doubt the plight of illegal immigrants and those trying to cross the Straits of Gibraltar merits further research and in-depth analysis. Lets hope Binebine comes up with a more ingenious and inventive narrative next time.