Salvation Army
An autobiographical novel by turn na ve and cunning, funny and moving, this most recent work by Moroccan expatriate Abdellah Ta a is a major addition to the new French literature emerging from the North African Arabic diaspora. Salvation Army is a coming-of-age novel that tells the story of Ta a's life with complete disclosure--from a childhood bound by family order and latent (homo)sexual tensions in the poor city of Sal , through an adolescence in Tangier charged by the young writer's attraction to his eldest brother, to a disappointing arrival in the Western world to study in Geneva in adulthood. In so doing, Salvation Army manages to burn through the author's first-person singularity to embody the complex m lange of fear and desire projected by Arabs on Western culture. Recently hailed by his native country's press as "the first Moroccan to have the courage to publicly assert his difference," Ta a, through his calmly transgressive work, has "outed" himself as "the only gay man" in a country whose theocratic law still declares homosexuality a crime. The persistence of prejudices on all sides of the Mediterranean and Atlantic makes the translation of Ta a's work both a literary and political event. The arrival of Salvation Army (published in French in 2006) in English will be welcomed by an American audience already familiar with a growing cadre of talented Arab writers working in French (including Muhammad Dib, Assia Djebar, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Abdelkebir Khatibi, and Katib Yasin).
Author: Abdellah Taia
Publisher: Semiotext(e)
Published: 04/01/2009
Pages: 144
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.70h x 5.90w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9781584350705
Audience: Young Adult
Award: Lambda Literary Awards - Finalist
Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 12/08/2008 pg. 43
Lambda Book Report 04/01/2008 pg. 12
About the Author
Abdellah Taïa (born in 1973) is the author of six novels, including Salvation Army and An Arab Melancholia, both published by Semiotext(e), and Infidels. His novel Le jour du roi, about the death of Morocco's King Hassan II, won the 2010 Prix de Flore. He also directed and wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film adaptation of Salvation Army.