Writing

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Tahar Ben Jelloun (born December 1, 1944) is a Moroccan writer. The entirety of his work is written in French, although his first language is Darija or Maghrebi Arabic. Today he resides in Paris, France, and continues to write. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Ben Jelloun's 1985 novel L’Enfant de Sable (The Sand Child) brought widespread attention. In 1987 he received the Prix Goncourt for his novel La Nuit Sacrée (The Sacred Night), making him the first Maghreb author to receive the award. His 1996 novel Les raisins de la galère (The Fruits of Hard Work) is a reflection on racism and traditional Muslim ideas about women's place. The protagonist, a young French women of Algerian origin, fights racism and exclusion to find her place in French society. In 1993 he received the journalistic award Golden Doves for Peace issued by the Italian Research Center Archivio Disarmo. Ben Jelloun was awarded the International Dublin Literary Award for Cette aveuglante absence de lumière (This Blinding Absence of Light) in 2004. In 2005 he received the Prix Ulysse for his entire body of his work. In Africa, his novel Le mariage de plaisir was shortlisted for the GPLA 2016 (Belles-Lettres Category).