''This Blinding Absence of Light'' () is a 2001 novel by the Moroccan writer

Tahar Ben Jelloun Tahar Ben Jelloun (; born 1 December 1944) is a Moroccan writer who rose to fame for his 1985 novel ''L'Enfant de sable'' ('' The Sand Child''). All of his work is written in French although his first language is Darija. He has been nominated f ...

, translated from French by

Linda Coverdale Linda Coverdale is a literary translator from French. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has a Ph.D in French Literature. She has translated into English more than 60 works by such authors as Roland Barthes, Emmanuel Carrère, Patrick Chamoisea ...

. Its narrative is based on the testimony of a former inmate at

Tazmamart Tazmamart () was a secret prison in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco holding political prisoners. The prison became a symbol of oppression in the political history of contemporary Morocco. It is located near the city of Er-Rich, between Errachid ...

, a Moroccan secret prison for political prisoners, with extremely harsh conditions.

Plot

The plot is based around the events following the second failed coup d'etat against the late

Hassan II of Morocco Hassan II (; 9 July 1929 – 23 July 1999) was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. A member of the Alawi dynasty, he was the eldest son of King Mohammed V of Morocco, Mohammed V, and his second wife Princess Lalla Abla ...

in August 1972. The protagonist is a prisoner in

, who, despite being a fictional character, is based on accounts of the prisoners who survived their incarceration there. The plot focuses on how prisoners who were kept in the extremely harsh conditions of Tazmamart survived, through religious devotion, imagination and communication. The prisoners spent their sentences in cells that are described as being only in height and long. The prisoners in the novel are not actively tortured, but are fed poorly and live without light.

Reception

Maureen Freely Maureen Deidre Freely (born July 1952) is an American novelist, professor, and translator. She has worked on the Warwick Writing Programme, University of Warwick, since 1996. Biography Born in Neptune, New Jersey, she is the daughter of author ...

reviewed the book for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', and wrote that "it defies any expectations you might have built up from nowing about Tazmamart It refuses the well-meaning but tired and ultimately dehumanising conventions of human rights horror journalism; it is not a political tract.... Although it is technically a novel, it is a novel stripped, like its subject, of all life's comforts." Freely wrote about the main character that "there is something

Beckettian Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and tragicomic epis ...

about his limited environment and studied hopelessness", and compared his literary voice to "the language of

Islamic mysticism Sufism ( or ) is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, and asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are referred to as "Sufis" (from , ), and ...

". Freely ended the review: "It is, despite its dark materials, a joy to read." The novel received the

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award (), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. It promotes excellence in world literature and is solely ...

in 2004.

References

{{s-end 2001 novels Éditions du Seuil books French-language novels Human rights abuses in Morocco Moroccan novels Novels set in Morocco Novels set in the 1970s Works by Tahar Ben Jelloun

Plot

Reception

See also

References