Literature without borders

Zineb Mekouar, back and forth between Morocco and France

Audio 29:00

The writer Zineb Mekouar in the studio at RFI (April 2022).

© Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint/RFI

By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint

1 min

Zineb Mekouar was born in 1991 in Casablanca, and has lived in Paris since 2009. She has just published her first novel under the title "

", which is a finalist for the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman 2022.

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The Hen and its cumin © JC Lattès

"Two young women, two destinies, two Moroccos. If a strong friendship bound in childhood Kenza and Fatiha, the daughter of his nurse, the reality of Moroccan society catches up with them, little by little, in its deaf cruelty. They meet in Casablanca at the end of 2011. What happened in the meantime?

What betrayals separate them?

In a country that punishes abortion and prohibits love outside marriage, how did these two little girls, from opposite backgrounds, grow up and become women?

Through the cross stories of Kenza and Fatiha, Zineb Mekouar intertwines the destinies of two heroines between submission and transgression.

In this large fresco, their wounds and their dramas embrace the political and social divisions of contemporary Morocco.

Intimate and universal."

(Presentation of

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