Driss Chraïbi

Seigneur Haj Ferdi is a very wealthy and powerful aristocratic property-owner in the Moroccan capital city of Casablanca. The aristocrat has grown his family inheritance into a very big fortune. He is a generous benefactor. The entire household fears and obeys the Seigneur. Haj Ferdi is diagnosed to be suffering from the terminal disease cirrhosis of the liver. He leaves his family and stays away on an island in his tomato plantation for five years. After the five years, he returns home; and is found dead two days later in Drissʹs room. All the sons come around for Hajʹs funeral ceremony. Driss, the narrator of the story, returns after sixteen years from France, leaving his French wife, his mother-in-law and son behind. The mourning lasts for ten days in Haj Ferdiʹs family, during which all the sons stay and sparsely feed together with their lonely mother. Then, it comes to sharing Haj Ferdiʹs inheritance.

Heirs to the Past

Lors de sa parution en 1954, ce livre fit l'effet d'une véritable bombe, tant en France qu'au Maroc qui luttait pour son indépendance. Avec une rare violence, il projetait le roman maghrébin d'expression française vers des thèmes majeurs : poids de l'Islam, condition féminine dans la société arabe, identité culturelle, conflit des civilisations. Vilipendé au début, commenté par des générations de lecteurs, il est enseigné depuis quelques années dans les universités marocaines.

Le passé simple

" Je remercie la vie. " C'est par ces mots que commence Vu, lu, entendu. Driss Chraïbi, le père de la littérature maghrébine d'expression française, ne se met pas en avant, mais choisit d'occuper les coulisses pour donner voix à tout un peuple, ressusciter une époque (1926-1947), vécue sur l'autre rive de la Méditerranée à travers le regard d'un adolescent ouvert au monde. Relatant ce qu'il a vu, lu et entendu, avec un humour qui n'appartient qu'à lui, Driss Chraïbi évoque, avec émotion et dans un amour gigantesque pour le pays natal, divers personnages : la figure héraldique du père, les amis français de jeunesse et surtout les grandes personnalités du Maroc, comme Allal el-Fassi, Ahmed Balafrej. " Je remercie la vie. Elle m'a comblé. En regard d'elle, tout le reste est littérature. "

Vu, lu, entendu

Histoire d'une mère initiée par ses deux fils à la vie moderne.

Roman

La civilisation, ma mére! ...

Driss Chraibi

An English translation of a French novel which tells the story of an Arab woman who, encouraged by her sons, seeks knowledge of the outside world, eventually becoming an educator and activist.

Mother Comes of Age

La civilisation, ma mère!--

Upon its release in 1954, the book had the effect of a bombshell, both in France and Morocco, which was fighting for its independence. With a rare violence, the book projected the French-speaking North African novel to major topics: weight of Islam, Women in Arab society, cultural identity, conflict of civilizations.

The Simple Past

L'ispettore Alì e il Corano: L'ispettore Alì al Trinity College-L'ispettore Alì e la CIA-L'ispettore Alì al villaggio

Nadia Benabid

It is the 26th day of Ramadan in the year 610, and a handsome man named Muhammad is meditating in a cave on Mount Hira. Fear grips him as he tries to sort out the visions and voices washing over him; and terrified that he is possessed, he leaves the cave to return to Mecca.

A Novel

Muhammad

The first book in a trilogy that continues with Mother Spring and Birth at Dawn, this naturalistic allegory is about two Arabic-speaking police officers who set out in the Atlas Mountains in search of a revolutionary. Once in this mysterious region, the officers, with their postcolonial, Westernized manners, are challenged by the ferociously suspicious and independent-minded Berber peoples. Chraïbi illustrates the clash between the modern and the traditional, between those who are willing to make cultural accommodation and those who are assertive of ancient traditions. At the same time, in language that is sometimes acerbic and sometimes lyrical, he illustrates the predicaments common to all ordinary people, whether urban or peasant. First published in French in 1981.

Flutes of Death

The final volume in a trilogy that includes The Flutes of Death and Mother Spring, Birth at Dawn extends to the eighth century the story of the arrival of Islam in Morocco and Algeria.

Birth at Dawn

Beginning with an epilogue set in the present, this novel quickly moves back to the time of the generation after Muhammad—a time when North Africa, the home of the Berber peoples, was overrun by Arab armies. With strong characters and a compelling sense of place, Chraïbi demonstrates how the Berbers tried to maintain their cultural identity in the face of the overwhelmingly rapid and powerful spread of Islam throughout their world. First published in French in 1982.

Mother Spring

The Butts

It is the 26th day of Ramadan in the year 610, and a handsome man named Muhammad is meditating in a cave on Mount Hira. Fear grips him as he tries to sort out the visions and voices washing over him; and terrified that he is possessed, he leaves the cave to return to Mecca. The day that will transform Muhammad?s life?and change the world?has begun.That day becomes a fluid intermingling of the ordinary and a dreamlike conviction that something indescribable is about to happen. Finally, his disquiet increasing, invading his sleep and forcing him to leave his wife's side, Muhammad returns to the cave on Mount Hira to give birth to the momentous revelations within him. This finely crafted, poetic novel captures the mystery of religious revelation as it unfolds in all its intensity, providing a unique window on Islam's Prophet. Winner of Morocco's prestigious Grand Prix Atlas in 1996, it was first published in French in 1995 as L'homme du Livre.

Setting his novel during World War II, Chraïbi opens the door on the protected and well-to- do world of an Arab woman whose role in society is restricted to that of wife and mother. At the urging of her two sons, she seeks knowledge of the larger world with all its political, economic, and social realities. Soon, she begins to develop and express her own opinions about the ongoing World War II and the domination and seclusion of women; and ultimately, she becomes an educator and activist, journeying to new intellectual and emotional realms.

Suite de ##La mère du printemps##. Une exploration de l'Islam et de son histoire, sous forme de fresque romanesque. Le récit commence à Cordoue en 711.

roman

Naissance à l'aube

"After many years abroad, the narrator, Brahim, with his much beloved Scottish wife and two very peppy boys, returns to his home village, El Jadida, in Morocco. Having invented an alter-ego, Inspector Ali, now becoming an incubus, he finds himself "adrift" if "world famous" as the author of the too scrutible, but very Sherlockian sleuth, with great solutions to crimes to his credit." "Then arrive Jock and Susan, his wife's parents from Scotland, loaded down with golf clubs and nervous expectations of a mysterious land." "Islam, bankers, a statuesque cook-maid, bureaucrats, students, bakers, butchers, aging Mercedes taxi drivers, nostalgia, writers bloc, all invade and saturate this volume, crosscutting into the narrative."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Driss Chraïbi

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