The Franco-Moroccan writer, Leïla Slimani, will be on tour in five Moroccan cities, from 19 to 29 March 2020, to meet the public and present her new novel “Le pays des autres”(The country of others), around discussions, readings and signing sessions, according to a press release from the French Institute-Morocco.
This event, organized by the French Institute of Morocco and the Marrakech Book Festival, is a meeting of Leila Slimani, best-selling author and winner of the Goncourt 2016 prize, with the Moroccan public, which will be held in five cities of the Kingdom, namely Casablanca (20 March), Tangiers (March 21), Meknes (March 23), Rabat (March 25) and Marrakech (March 26 and 29), the same source says, adding that the writer will be speaking at the Meknes International Animation Film Festival and the Marrakech Book Festival.
Published by “Gallimard, Collection Blanche” and released in bookshops on 5 March, “Le pays des autres” is the “first opus” in a family trilogy.
Inspired by the story of the writer’s grandmother, the plot takes place in Meknes and deals with Morocco’s rise to independence in 1956. Through the fate of many characters, Leila Slimani subtly depicts the reality of colonization and the female condition at the time.
All the characters in this novel live in “Le pays des autres”: the settlers as well as the natives, the soldiers as well as the peasants or the exiles. Women, above all, live in the country of men and must constantly fight for their emancipation, says the website of the French Institute-Morocco. Leïla Slimani is a Franco-Moroccan journalist and writer, who published her first novel “Dans le jardin de l’ogre” (In the Garden of the Ogre) with Gallimard in 2014 and has been nominated for the Prix de Flore 2014. Her second novel, “Chanson douce”, was awarded the Prix Goncourt 2016, as well as the Grand Prix des lectrices Elle 2017. It was adapted for the cinema in 2019, with actresses Karin Viard and Leïla Bekhti.
The year 2017 was a prolific year for Leila Slimani, where she published three books: “Sexe et mensonges : La vie sexuelle au Maroc”, the graphic novel “Paroles d’honneur”, and “Simone Veil, mon héroïne”. The same year, she was appointed President Emmanuel Macron’s personal representative for the French-speaking world.
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