A contemporary Moroccan classic eco-feminist novel of estrangement by the Amazighi scholar, public intellectual, activist, poet and teacher Aziz Benhaddouch (1967-2016). This is an examination of the performance of masculinity in a society defined by the absence of visible women, of Sufism as a way to locate feminism within patriarchal structures, of the heart’s relationship to the living land, of the practical mechanics of consciousness-raising, and of the poetics of linguistic dislocation within a polyglossic state. Sent to a remote area to teach in high school, protagonist Idriss’s question is how to develop didactic strategies to change the world — a question at the heart of Benhaddouch’s own life’s work. Deeply grounded in the earth and the land, and shot through with inside observations on migration from the Global South to the Global North, this elegant novel juxtaposes nature with corrupt human structures to great effect.

Approximate number of pages: 146 p.

Foreign rights: contact translator