
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION
Spring, 1990. After years of searching in vain, a stranger passes a scrap of paper to Zina. It's from Aziz: the man who vanished the day after their wedding almost two decades ago. It propels Zina on a final quest for a secret desert jail in southern Morocco, where her husband crouches in despair, dreaming of his former life. Youssef Fadel pays powerful testament to a terrible period in Morocco's history, known as 'the Years of Cinders and Lead, ' and masterfully evokes the suffering inflicted on those who supported the failed coup against King Hassan II in 1972.
"[Fadel is] a valued asset of modern Moroccan literature."--Aujourd'hui le Maroc
"Events progress rapidly and with the acute tension of a detective novel"--Leah Caldwell, The National
"Fadel's daring account of modern Morocco widens the periphery of the English reader on a subject that is better known in Arabic and French."--Sherif Dhaimish, Qantara.de