Yassin Adnan: ت ماروك (Hot Maroc)

The latest addition to my website is assin Adnan‘s ت ماروك (Hot Maroc). Our hero is Rahhal Laâouina, a young Moroccan man, who is not very heroic. He is not very bright, devious, weak, cowardly but has a low cunning. His family has always had bad luck. He is thrown out of university for failing but manages to get back in by political means. He studies Arabic literature and for his thesis teams up with Hassaniya, a traditional Muslim, far brighter than Rahhul. She has a ready made job in a school when she graduates and simply needs a ready-made husband and Rahhul, to his and our surprise, gets the job. Hassaniya’s employer opens a cybercafé for him and soon he is in his element, particularly having multiple online identities when he comments on the Hot Maroc news website. He soon makes an (anonymous) name for himself, damns his various enemies but is coopted by the police to follow the party line. But despite his devious behaviour, as the narrator tells us, Rahhul’s life is elsewhere but he does not know where. We follow elections, a fatwa, public health, feminism, pornography, marital (in)fidelity, apostasy and a host of other issues as Morocco goes fully online and Rahhul struggles to keep up.

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