Novel
Toiles d'araignées
Not translated into English
Ibrahima Ly · 1982
Synopsis
Mariama is fifteen. Her father, who threatens to disown her, forces her to marry Bakary, an old man and the richest in the village, according to the religious rite. On the day of the civil marriage, she tries to flee; caught, she is thrown into prison for rebellion and contempt of authority. The narrative then follows life in the cells and the brutality of the institution, which the novel describes in detail.
Context
The novel was published by L'Harmattan in 1982, in 344 pages, four years after the author's release: it draws its material from his years in detention, and the heroine has her place in it, the author speaking of autofiction. Actes Sud reissued it in 1997, followed by an interview with Bernard Magnier, and the filmmaker Ibrahima Touré made a film from it in 2011. Assia Marfouq reads in the webs of the title the image of a trapped universe, where lives are caught in a machine of pain.
Who it is for
A long novel, in French, of some four hundred pages in its reissue, with a harsh narrative centred on prison life.
Prizes and reception
No known prize; the novel is studied at university as an image of the African prison, as far as Morocco.
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