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3.5 

Straight from the Horse's Mouth

By Meryem Alaoui & Emma Ramadan
Straight from the Horse's Mouth by Meryem Alaoui & Emma Ramadan digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

Named a Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Public Library 

This hilarious, colorful portrait of a sex worker navigating life in modern Morocco introduces a promising new literary voice.

 
Thirty-four-year-old prostitute Jmiaa reflects on the bustling world around her with a brutal honesty, but also a quick wit that cuts through the drudgery. Like many of the women in her working-class Casablanca neighborhood, Jmiaa struggles to earn enough money to support herself and her family—often including the deadbeat husband who walked out on her and their young daughter. While she doesn’t despair about her profession like her roommate, Halima, who reads the Quran between clients, she still has to maintain a delicate balance between her reality and the “respectable” one she paints for her own more conservative mother.
 
This daily grind is interrupted by the arrival of an aspiring young director, Chadlia, whom Jmiaa takes to calling “Horse Mouth.” Chadlia enlists Jmiaa’s help on a film project, initially just to make sure the plot and dialogue are authentic. But when she’s unable to find an actress who’s right for the starring role, she turns again to Jmiaa, giving the latter an incredible opportunity for a better life.
 
In her breakout debut novel, Meryem Alaoui creates a vibrant picture of the day-to-day challenges faced by working people in Casablanca, which they meet head-on with resourcefulness and resilience.

23 Reviews

3.5
“"We found ourselves here not because we didn't have a choice. Not because we did childish things behind a screen and then we didn't know how to defend ourselves." If I had listened to the audiobook, I knew I would have laughed a lot more than I did reading the physical copy. Because Jmiaa was so hilarious to me the way she recounts her life, her everyday dealings with men she sleeps with, and fellow neighbors/friends, and the vulgarity of it all. Sets in Morroco (casablanca), originally written and translated from French, tells of a self-aware/ keen intelligent sex worker. Easy, fast, and pretty much engaging. The only issue I had with it was how fast-paced it was towards her success at the end. In the end, I felt I never really got to know Jmiaa like I wanted.”
“A story of perseverance and opportunity in Casablanca. Meryem Alaoui expertly mixes laugh out loud funny with heartbreaking betrayal and misfortune. Told from the hilarious and sarcastic Jmiaa, you feel as though you are winning and loosing right along with her. Rich with references to modern Moroccan culture, this story was as fascinating as it was entertaining. Highly recommended.”

About Meryem Alaoui

Meryem Alaoui was born and raised in Morocco, where she managed an independent media group that combined publications in French (TelQuel) and Arabic (Nichane). Straight from the Horse’s Mouth, her debut novel, was first published in France, where it has achieved great critical acclaim. After several years in New York, Alaoui now lives in Morocco.
 
Emma Ramadan is an educator and literary translator from French. She is the recipient of the PEN Translation Prize, the Albertine Prize, an NEA Fellowship, and a Fulbright. Her translations include Abdellah Taïa’s A Country for Dying, Kamel Daoud’s Zabor, or The Psalms, and Barbara Molinard’s Panics.

Emma Ramadan

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