num_pages: 129
description: In this moving fictional treatment of a Muslim woman's life, a personal and family crisis impells the heroine to reexamine traditional cultural attitudes toward women. Cast out and divorced by her husband, she finds herself in a strange new world. Both obstacles and support systems change as she actively participates in the struggle for Moroccan independence from France. This feminist novel is a literary statement in a modern realist style. Many novels by women of the Middle East that have been translated reflect Western views, values, and education. By contrast, Year of the Elephant is uniquely Moroccan and emerges from North African Islamic culture itself. Its subtle juxtaposition of past and present, of immediate thought and triggered memory, reflects the heroine's interior conflict between tradition and modern demands. The title refers to a famous battle described in the Koran.
language: English
title: Year of the Elephant: A Moroccan Woman's Journey Toward Independence
titlecomplete: Year of the Elephant: A Moroccan Woman's Journey Toward Independence
genres: Feminism, Islam, Religion, Race, Short Stories, Africa, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Morocco, Politics
ratings_count: 505
series: CMES Modern Middle East Literatures in Translation
publisher: The University of Texas Press