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This novel has no single hero. Its protagonists are groups of people who strive and fight back, and above all the district of Jebel Jelloud itself, a poor working-class neighbourhood south of Tunis that stands for the country's modern history, from colonial rule to the crisis-ridden decade that followed the revolution. Characters such as al-Dakh, al-Azri, Lalla, the corpse-washer and Abu Snior struggle against time and against each other, while a pool at the heart of the district swallows human lives. Told in twenty-eight chapters with an irony that hides much seriousness, in a language poised between standard Arabic and Tunisian speech, the book moves between documentary and myth.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

390 pages in the original

Genres

Historical, Politics, Satire (assigned by AI)

Set in

Tunisia, colonial era to the 2010s

First published

2023 by Med Ali

ISBN

9789973336415 (original)