About Graham Cornwell is a writer and historian who specializes in the history of modern Morocco. He has a PhD in History from Georgetown University, and is currently working on a book about the history of Moroccan mint tea.
We get asked a lot about recommended reading before our clients depart on their Morocco trips. There's a lot out there, and it depends a little bit on exactly where in Morocco you're going. But here's a working list of my favorite novels set in Morocco and written by Moroccans. Stay tuned for non-fiction and for city-specific books.
The House on Butterfly Street - Mhani Alaoui.
There's a noir side to a lot of modern Moroccan writing, and Casablanca-based writer (and trained anthropologist) Mhani Alaoui turns the gaze on both the dark alleyways and polished villas of "Casa," Morocco's biggest city. It follows two women as they investigate a mysterious disappearance, and it does an amazing job weaving in bits of Casablanca's interesting early twentieth-century history.
Love with a Few Hairs - Mohammed Mrabet.
One of the classic Moroccan novels of the mid-20th century, it's the story of a hard-drinking young man who uses a magic spell to get a girl to fall in love with him, only for the magic to wear off. It's a classic tale of Tangier's seedy, expat underbelly, with a complicated and problematic backstory. Mrabet would dictate the story to Paul Bowles, the American writer and longtime Tangier resident, who then "translated" it from spoken Moroccan dialect into written English.
A Beautiful White Cat Walks With Me - Youssef Fadel.
A darkly humorous and politically provocative novel set during the long war between Morocco and the Polisario Front over control of Morocco's Sahara provinces. It goes back and forth between Marrakesh, the Sahara, and the king's palace, where the narrator's father is the court jester.
The Moor's Account - Laila Lalami.
In 1528, a Moroccan slave from the city of Azemmour named Estebanico set out with the Narvaez Expedition for the New World. The expedition was a complete disaster. Only four people survived. All we know about it comes from the chronicle of one of the four survivors, who makes infrequent mention of the party's Moorish slave. Lalami reimagines the story from Estebanico's perspective. It's wildly entertaining and also thought-provoking: what would it be like for a 16th-century Moroccan to explore what is now the southeastern United States?
The Last Friend - Tahar ben Jelloun.
Ben Jelloun is one of the most internationally famous Moroccan writers; he was the first North African writer to win the prestigious Prix Goncourt for his second novel, The Sacred Night. This is my favorite of his works. Like much of his work, it grapples with Moroccan migration to Europe, here by tracing how two best friends from Tangier grow apart and come back together as their lives take on different trajectories. (I like Leaving Tangier, too.)
In the Country of Others and Watch Us Dance - Leila Slimani.
Set in and around Meknes, these are the first two books of a trilogy (the third yet to be written). It's a family epic that tells the story of a French woman who marries a Moroccan man and moves to rural Morocco to try to build a life and a new farm in the years just before and after Moroccan independence. It's such a beautiful story that I feel sympathetic toward even the most deeply flawed characters.
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