Secret Son
Moroccan-born Lalami offers a novel set in her native land. The protagonist is a young man of very meager circumstances living with his widowed mother in Casablanca while he attends college as an English major. The city’s ancient streets teem with political unrest, but Youssef seems disconnected. His thoughts are haunted by the loss of his father in a freak accident when Youssef was an infant. Shocked by his doting mother’s precipitous confession that he is not the son of her late husband, Youssef determines to find his real father, who turns out to be a successful local businessman. The man sets up Youssef in a chic apartment, quite a contrast to the slum Youssef has called home. But such a sudden turn of fortune cannot endure a time of turmoil. A story brimming with insight into the complexities of life in contemporary Morocco. --Mark Knoblauch