Ahmed Taibaoui: اختفاء السيد لا أحد The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody)

The latest addition to my website is Ahmed Taibaoui‘s اختفاء السيد لا أحد The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody). Set in Algeria, the novel is divided into two linked parts. In the first apart, we meet the eponymous Mr Nobody. He had almost been executed as a teenager during the Algerian Civil War but had been saved by a man who recognised him. His parents had disappeared so he was brought up by an aunt. When she died he struggled to earn a living but then met the man who saved him, Mourad, by chance. Mourad gives him a free flat and some money for looking after his ageing very ill old father and then Mourad disappears to Germany. Nobody struggles to survive and when the police start poking aroung and the old man dies, he disappears. In the second part, Rafik, a detective is looking for Mr Nobody but draws a blank. Rafik, Mubarak, the local café owner and Ousmane, the bookshop owner, all struggle in their relationships and in their professional lives. In short, Algeria is not a happly place to be unless you are rich and have influence.

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