Description Hide Description- Show Description+
Salvation Army, a memoir by Moroccan expatriate Abdellah Taïa is by turns naïve and cunning, funny and moving, and a major addition to the genres of 'coming out' stories and the North African/Arabic diaspora (see also the recent novel, Leaving Tangier by Tahar Ben Jelloun).
It is a coming-of-age story that tells the story of Taïa's life with complete disclosure - from a childhood bound by family order and latent (homo)sexual tensions in the poor city of Salé, through a sexual awakening in Tangier charged by the young writer's attraction to his eldest brother, to a disappointing arrival in the Western world to study in Geneva in adulthood. This book manages to address in clear and direct prose the complex mix of fear and desire projected by Arabs on Western culture, and vice versa. Recently hailed by his native country's press as "the first Moroccan to have the courage to publicly assert his difference," Taïa, through his calmly transgressive work, has "outed" himself as "the only gay man" in a country whose theocratic law still declares homosexuality a crime. With an introduction by Edmund White.
Author: Abdellah Taia
Paperback, 143 Pages, Published 2009