Synopsis
"In this deeply moving novel," says L'Express, "Tahar Ben Jelloun has chosen imagination as the response to inhumanity - the art of writing as the ultimate liberation." He tells the appalling story of the desert concentration camps in which King Hassan II of Morocco held his political enemies. Not until September 1991, under international pressure, was Hassan's regime forced to open these desert hellholes. A handful of survivors - living cadavers who had shrunk by over a foot in height - emerged from the six-by-three-foot cells in which they had been held underground for decades. Working closely with one of the survivors, Ben Jelloun eschewed the traditional novel format and wrote a book in the simplest of language, reaching always for the most basic of words, the most correct descriptions. The result is "a great novel," according to Le Monde, and what Les Echos calls "a book of universal import, addressing all the horrors, past and doubtless future, that man has inflicted on his fellow men."

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: In the very front rank of prison literature, 6 Jul 2005 By  Barton Keyes "copilotsb" (England) - See all my reviews    This astonishing book stands favourable comparsion with every classic of prison literature you can think of. Transparently written and deeply insightful, the awful conditions of confinement suffered by the Moroccan prisoners chill the blood. The book is translated in such a way that there is no hint that it was not written in English, with not one infelicitous phrase or awkward sentence. Shocking in its simple descriptions of state sadism, the book also describes unemotionally a triumph of the human spirit in the face of unremitting attempts to crush it and replace the minor pleasures of everyday existence available even to ordinary prisoners, -- sunlight, the feeling and sounds of rain, cleanliness and basic cameraderie -- with solitude, insanity and a complete absence of light. This is a book that deserves a much wider readership  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: The Beauty of the Strong Willed and Faithful, 2 Oct 2005 By  "wayoftheprophet" - See all my reviews A friend gave me a copy of this book and told me to read it. I did so and found it hard to get into but after two chapters I found a rhtyhm. I read the entire book in one session and could not put it down. The amazing yet at the same time horrifying descriptions in the book - the humanity shown by the prisoners in a place where humanity no longer existed, the reliance on the self and gifts from heaven, the stages man goes through in isolation and the shock when coming out of it - all presented in a unique and immensely personal voyage. Dignity exudes from the author. At one point, whilst reading, I was in a torrent of tears and prayed for one of the departed companions in the book. I do not normally cry so easily but this account of one man's life in hell was not an easy affair to read about. Undoubtably this work has the ability to change ones life.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all 2 customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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