![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() They hang out nervously on street corners, smoke cigarettes, seek the attention of young women, and fret about admission to the university, which everyone - especially Youssef’s mother - believes is the ticket to success and freedom from their lot in the slums. In the nascent years of the 21st century, in a neighborhood full of “merchants peddling their wares from rickety bicycles” and the “stink of old, refried sardines,” Youssef and his friends face the usual array of nineteen-year-old anxieties. What he finds is more than a genealogical chart and what readers find is more than just a compelling story: Secret Son is a mirror in which our own modern age is reflected. Set in modern-day Morocco, the novel concerns the coming-of-age of Youssef el-Mekki, a young man struggling to establish his identity and livelihood in the slum of Hay An Najat while seeking the father he long thought deceased. ![]() But those who imagine Casablanca merely as a city of romance and North African charm may find themselves at a loss to reconcile the spices of their imagination with the brutal realities of poverty and the political and religious corruption Lalami portrays in Secret Son (Algonquin Books, April 2009). And anyone who has ever imagined its fragrances or color will recognize the setting of Laila Lalami’s second novel. Few places are more evocative of mystery and the exotic than Casablanca. ![]()
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