Sacred Night

Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in Fez, Morocco, in 1944 and has lived in France since 1971. An internationally recognized novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist, Ben Jelloun has received numerous awards for his works, including the Prix Maghreb, the Prix des Hemispheres and the Legion of Honor. His books include Solitaire, Silent Day in Tangier, With Downcast Eyes, Corruption, and Racism Explained to My Daughter. He is also a regular contributor to Le Monde. His novel The Sand Child is also available in paperback from Johns Hopkins.

Impressive... Though [the story] suggests a number of allegorical interpretations, the surface of the narrative proceeds with enough sheer pleasure and lack of pretension to deeper meanings to ensure that these are rarely overt... Gender, sexuality, the cultures they impose, and the restrictions imposed on them by cultures, are a form of imprisonment; yet so, too, is the attempt to evade them. Times Literary Supplement Haunting, often hallucinogenic. Los Angeles Times A writer of much originality. Chicago Tribune

• PreambleChapter 1. InventoryChapter 2. Night of DestinyChapter 3. A Beautiful DayChapter 4. The Perfumed GardenChapter 5. The Mirrors of TimeChapter 6. A Dagger Caressing My BackChapter 7. The Seated WomanChapter 8. The ConsulChapter 9. The PactChapter 10. A Soul DefeatedChapter 11. A Confusion of FeelingsChapter 12. The Consul's RoomChapter 13. A Lake of Heavy WaterChapter 14. The Brothel CharadeChapter 15. The MurderChapter 16. In The DarknessChapter 17. The LetterChapter 18. Ashes and BloodChapter 19. The ForgottenChapter 20. My Story, My PrisonChapter 21. HellChapter 22. The Saint