The Last Friend

by Tahar Ben Jelloun

Translated from french by Kevin Michel Cape and Hazel Rowley

The Last Friend, the new novel from internationally acclaimed author Tahar Ben Jelloun, winner of the 2004 International Dublin/IMPAC award, is a tale of friendship and betrayal set in twentieth century Tangier. Written in Ben Jelloun’s inimitable and powerfully direct style, the novel explores the twists and turns of an intense thirtyyear friendship between two young men struggling to find their identities and sexual fulfillment in Morocco in the late 1950s, a complex and contradictory society both modern and archaic.
From their carefree university days through their brutal imprisonment and ultimate release, the two rely on each other for physical and psychological survival, forging bonds not easily broken. Each narrator tells his version of the story, painting a vivid portrait of life lived within and in opposition to the moral strictures of North Africa.
Set against a backdrop of repression and disillusionment, The Last Friend is a tale of loss of innocence and a nation’s coming of age.

(From Publisher)

Winner of the 2004 Impac Prize, the 1994 Prix Maghreb, and the 1987 Prix Goncourt, Moroccan-born Tahar Ben Jelloun emigrated to France in 1961. A novelist, essayist, critic, and poet, he is a regular contributor to Le Monde, La Repubblica, El País, and Panorama. His novels include the Prix Goncourt–winning The Sacred Night, Corruption, and This Blinding Absence of Light (Impac Prize, 2004). He lives in Paris, France.