The Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) and Le Fennec publishing house have announced the publication of a new box set bringing together seven major works by Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine, an exceptional initiative aimed at rehabilitating and celebrating the memory of one of the greatest Moroccan writers of the 20th century, according to a press release.
Born in 1941 near Tafraout, south of Agadir, Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine left his mark on Moroccan literature. Coming from a modest family of small traders, he left his native village early to continue his studies in Casablanca. Although he described himself as “bad at Arabic, except poetry,” from a young age he wrote tragedies that his father sold to peanut sellers to make cones.
+ A box set of seven novels +
The Agadir earthquake of 1960, a traumatic event and symbol of questioning, left a deep mark on him. Charged by social security with a survey of the population, Khaïr-Eddine recommends a “linguistic guerrilla” in poetry. Close friend of the founders of the Souffles movement, in particular he left for France in 1965, where he became a worker in the Paris suburbs. Returning permanently to Morocco in 1979, he collaborated on several Moroccan magazines and died in November 1995.
Subversive, unclassifiable and devoid of any complacency, Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine wanted to “write about the wounds of the world”. His writings, imbued with the violence of his experiences, reflect the aridity of his native lands and the bitterness of his experience as an immigrant in France.
This set of seven novels contains: Agadir, Moi, l’aigre, Le déterreur, Une odor de mantèque, A life, a dream, a people always wandering, Legend and life of Agoun’Chich, Once upon a time there was an old couple happy.
It is a rehabilitation of the memory of a writer whose words were weapons and who challenged common language to reinvent language. Alongside this reissue, an international conference is being prepared in tribute to Mohammed Khair-Eddine.
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