The Abductor - Softcover

Marouane, Leila

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0704381427 ISBN 13: 9780704381421

Publisher: Quartet Books Ltd, 2001

Synopsis

A Muslim family experiences tragedy and growth under Islamic law when their father, Aziz Zeitoun, violently repudiates his wife, Nayla, then attempts to remarry her within Islamic regulations.

About this title

About the Author

Leila Marouane was born in Algeria in 1960. She has worked as a journalist in Algiers, Berlin, Zurich and Paris. She is now living in France.

From Publishers Weekly

In lovely, lilting and sometimes devastatingly direct prose, Marouane, an Algerian-born journalist now living in Europe, tells the tragicomic story of a family of six Muslim daughters whose mother has been repudiated three times and thereby, under Islam, divorced by their volatile, clownish father, Aziz Zeitoun. He immediately regrets his action, but Nayla Zeitoun must marry and divorce someone else to be able to remarry Aziz, who chooses a kindly, idiosyncratic neighbor as the man for the job. In a poetic deadpan, Samira, the oldest daughter, relates the events from madcap to horrifying and her family's quirks: "My father had discovered Noria's passion for shoes when she was seven.... Since then the task of cleaning the shoes of the whole family had fallen to her. This she did scrupulously and sometimes happily, provided she was allowed to hum." One could chalk the characters' screwy psychologies up to severe family dysfunction or sexist cultural practices. But the interactions are so fraught, subtle and inexplicable and always convincing that social repression alone inadequately explains them. About midway through comes the twofold crux: a terribly violent encounter, and Selina's recovery of suppressed memories. The reader is stunned, but in retrospect it's clear that the violent and tragic potential lurked all along beneath the chaotic, funny and poignant surface. Throughout, the sisters' dialogue recalls Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things; Marouane deftly interleaves horror and humor via the speech and manner of exceptional children. Though the downward-spiraling second half could be slightly condensed, this novel is a gem. (June)Forecast: Since this is a paperback original, reviewers may not notice Marouane's U.S. debut (her first book, La Fille de la Casbah, is not yet available in English), but just one or two well-placed, positive reviews could spur further coverage and sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Quartet Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0704381427
• ISBN 13: 9780704381421
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 193