A Palace in the Old Village

From 'Morocco's greatest living author' (The Guardian) comes a heartbreaking novel about parents and children, the powerful pull of home and the yearning for tradition and family. Mohammed has spent the past 40 years working in France. As he approaches retirement, he takes stock of his life - his devotion to Islam and to his assimilated children - and decides to return to Morocco, where he spends his life's savings building the biggest house in the village and waiting for his children and grandchildren to come and be with him.

'What Ben Jelloun does brilliantly is write with a kind of refreshing candor that demystifies the Arab world.' Paris Voice 'In any language, Tahar Ben Jelloun would be a remarkable novelist.' Sunday Telegraph 'With this novel, Ben Jelloun, a native of Morocco, gives us an unvarnished look at a Muslim's life in the West, and reminds us that literature can help us understand one another.' Minneapolis Star Tribune

Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in Fez, Morocco, and immigrated to France in 1961. A novelist, essayist, critic and poet, he is a regular contributor to Le Monde, La Républica, El País, and Panorama. He won the Prix Goncourt in 1987 for his novel La nuit sacrée (The Sacred Night) and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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