This Blinding Absence Of Light

This novel by Tahar Ben Jelloun, winner of the 2004 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, was written by the author based on the testimony of one of the survivors of the desert concentration camps – the Tazmamart Prison - in which King Hassan II of Morocco detained his political enemies. These underground cells had no light and prisoners were given only enough food and water to keep them lingering on the edge of death. To survive, the narrator, although he had abandoned all hope, had managed to keep his sanity by telling stories to his inmates the most memorable of which was that of film adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh.

The book details the inhumanity that the inmates had faced to endure. The prose, through pregnant with terrible details of cruelty, suffering and death, has been masterfully crafted, is accessible, and, ironically, is beautiful to read.

This great novel, highly praised by Nobel Prize winners J.M. Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer, is unforgettable.

{June 27, 2009}