A story in in praise of a woman, a fighter, a survivor from the award-winning French-Moroccan novelist known for humanizing North Africa’s otherwise marginalized characters—prostitutes and thieves, trans and gay people in a world where being LGBTQ+ can be a dangerous act.
Shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2022.
Three moments in the life of Malika, a Moroccan countrywoman. From 1954 to 1999. From French colonization to the death of King Hassan II. 
It is her voice we hear in Abdellah Taïa’s stunning new novel, translated by Emma Ramadan, who won the PEN Translation Prize for her translation of Taia’s last novel, A Country for Dying.
Malika’s first husband was sent by the French to fight in Indochina.
In the 1960s, in Rabat, she does everything possible to prevent her daughter Khadija from becoming a maid in a rich French woman’s villa.
The day before the death of Hassan II, a young homosexual thief, Jaâfar, enters her home and wants to kill her.
Malika recounts with rage her strategies to escape the injustices of History. To survive. To have a little space of her own.
Malika is Taïa’s mother: M'Barka Allali Taïa (1930-2010). This book is dedicated to her.

Born in Rabat, Morocco in 1973, ABDELLAH TAÏA has written many novels, including Salvation Army, which he also made into an award-winning film, Infidels (Seven Stories 2016), translated by Alison Strayer, and A Country for Dying (Seven Stories, 2020), which was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for Emma Ramadan’s translation. He lives in Paris.
EMMA RAMADAN is an educator and literary translator from French. She was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for Abdellah Taïa’s A Country for Dying, and has also received the Albertine Prize, two NEA Fellowships, and a Fulbright. Her other translations include Anne Garréta's Sphinx, Kamel Daoud’s Zabor, or the Psalms, Kaoutar Harchi’s As We Exist, Marguerite Duras's The Easy Life, and Barbara Molinard's Panics.