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The captivating chronicle of a Moroccan soldier during World War I

Tell Someone

Rachida Lamrabet

Amazigh, a young Moroccan, ends up behind bars after attempting to get his revenge on his French father. There’s only one way he’ll get out of prison: a one-way ticket to the French frontlines. Together with young men from other French colonies, including Algeria and Senegal, he finds himself caught up in the madness of the First World War. He discovers what it means to be a second-class soldier. When a corrupt French officer dies during an attack, Amazigh writes in his diary that the man got what he deserved. For this ‘act of treason’, Amazigh is sentenced to death.

Her best book so far
Charles Ducal, former Poet Laureate of Belgium

Rachida Lamrabet tells a story that is forgotten all too often: that of the soldiers from the colonies who were swept up in a war that was not theirs. In her distinctive and captivating style, with a tip of her hat to Camus’ ‘The Stranger’ and to Kamel Daouds 'The Meursault investigation', Lamrabet reflects on fate, betrayal, identity, lies, and the truth; on loving language, the power of words and on learning to read and write. She also shows what can happen when those same words betray you – and lead to your demise.

Driven by an authentic, uncurbed narrative power, clearly influenced by Gabriel García Márquez' magical realism
De Morgen