وراء السراب... قليلا

Starting from the figure of his grandmother and the depths of the desert, the narrator follows a crowd of characters in the Jerid and the mining region of southern Tunisia, each lost in a maze of poverty, servitude or wandering. At their centre stands Aziz al-Sultani, a man sunk in pleasure. The discovery of phosphate, a new town and the railway from Tunis to Gafsa transform a Bedouin society: slaves turn into workers who demand their rights and want to found a union, and the mine owners answer with force. A Bedouin woman, Aïcha, is pursued by Louis, a European who converts to Islam. Saints' miracles, legends and Koranic stories run through the book, and its present echoes older times, from al-Mu'izz ibn Badis and the Hilalian tribes to the Bey who sold Tunisia.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

210 pages in the original

Genres

Historical, Politics (assigned by AI)

Set in

Tunisia, early 20th century

First published

2002 by Dar al-Ithaf

Author's age

47 when first published

ISBN

9789973820822 (original)