Short stories
حزن في الرأس والقلب
Not translated into English
Driss El Khouri · 1973
Synopsis
Sixteen stories that capture everyday life in Morocco in the early seventies: vagrants and idlers with shattered dreams, workers struggling for their bread, journalists and intellectuals torn between their profession and political reality, women defending their dignity under a traditional gaze. A narrating voice close to the author blends sadness with biting irony, in a language drawn from the street, where Moroccan speech comes through, and takes the side of ordinary people.
Context
The collection appeared in Rabat in 1973, from the al-Oumniya printing house. It is seen as a contribution to the development of the Moroccan short story, linking personal experience to collective concern. Monte Carlo Doualiya ranks its author, with Choukri and Zefzaf, among the pioneers of the modern Moroccan narrative, attentive to the working classes and to the use of Moroccan speech, and cites the book at the head of his collections; the obituaries of 2022 give it, with ظلال, as the best known of his titles.
Who it is for
Short stories in Arabic, in a simple, lively language mixed with Moroccan speech; no French translation identified.
Prizes and reception
The poet Jalal Hakmaoui lists it in 2022 among the essential books of the short narrative in Morocco.
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