Ahmed is 40 years old, lives in Paris and is Moroccan. He writes to his mother, who passed away five years ago, to deal with topics that have remained unresolved, and finally to tell her that he is homosexual. He sends a letter to break up with Emmanuel, the man he loves passionately, the man who took him to France and changed his life, though not for the better in every way. Ahmed also receives letters from Vincent and Lahbib. An epistolary novel that harks back in time to the origins of all that pain. A book on French colonialism that endures in the young Moroccan’s love life. The book’s presentation will delve into such topics as sexuality, colonialism and identity as a Moroccan LGBTI+ individual. Abdellah Taïa will visit Casa Árabe thanks to the collaboration of Fundación Tres Culturas.

Presentation information sheet

Abdellah Taïa (Salé, 1973) is a Moroccan writer and filmmaker who has been living in Paris since 1998. Through his father, a concierge at a local Rabat library, he comes into contact with literature and studies French Literature in Rabat. He gets the opportunity to leave Morocco in the mid-1990s when he studies abroad for one semester in Geneva. He later studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 2006, he made his sexual orientation public in an interview with the political magazine Tel Quel, becoming the first Moroccan intellectual to do so in that way. Taïa’s books don’t just deal with his life as a gay man in a homophobic environment, but also perform reflection over an autobiographical background showing the social experiences of the generation of Moroccans who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s.