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Ashland Mystery
, January 05, 2013
(view all comments by Ashland Mystery)
Morituri is one of the most beautifully written, most eloquent works I've ever read. It's a nationalistic narrative of love for Algeria, a nostalic, longing for the Algeria not of today but of yesterday.
Set in contemporary Algeria, Superintendent Llob is just another policeman: shot at, spat upon, despised. Terrorism against the police is a daily fact of life and Llob investigates corruption, theft and homicide in the face of car bombings and snipers.
The work has an exquisite, exotic setting - I can close my eyes and feel the heat, feel the fear of the streets. Khadra's language is extravagant, sensual. The sun is often used as a metaphor for Algeria - "It's Monday. A sullen sky dispenses its moroseness over the town. The sun of my country is depressed. The atrocities that the night bequeaths it have triumphed over its magic."
Yasmina Khadra is the pseudonym of Mohammed Moulessehoul, an Algerian army officer who left his country for France, where he lives in exile.
I was so fortunate to find this Toby Crime translation by David Herman at Powells in Portland, Oregon. The series editor, Keith Botsford writes in the introduction to the work: "Toby Crime proposes a series in which crime novels from many literatures are first novels, and only then crime novels. That is, they are written for a literature public by writers who engage with language and society, and pose genuine human dilemmas. In that sense they go beyond crime to real life and real characters. The crime will not always be murder and they will come in all shapes and sizes."
Right up my alley. Thanks Toby Press! I'll look for more from Khadra, and also from this unique British imprint.
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