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In the Country of Others
In the Country of Others: A Novel | Lela Slimani
4 posts | 4 read | 7 to read
The award-winning, #1 internationally bestselling new novel by the author of The Perfect Nanny, about a woman in an interracial marriage whose fierce desire for autonomy parallels her adopted country's fight for independence The world of men is just like the world of botany. In the end, one species dominates another. One day, the orange will win out over the lemon, or vice versa, and the tree will once again produce fruit that people can eat. In her first new novel since The Perfect Nanny launched her onto the world stage and won her acclaim for her "devastatingly perceptive character studies" (The New York Times Book Review), Leila Slimani draws on her own family's inspiring story for the first volume in a planned trilogy about race, resilience, and women's empowerment. Mathilde, a spirited young Frenchwoman, falls in love with Amine, a handsome Moroccan soldier in the French army during World War II. After the war, the couple settles in Morocco. While Amine tries to cultivate his family farm's rocky terrain, Mathilde feels her vitality sapped by the isolation, the harsh climate, the lack of money, and the mistrust she inspires as a foreigner. Left increasingly alone to raise her two children in a world whose rules she does not understand, and with her daughter taunted at school by rich French girls for her secondhand clothes and unruly hair, Mathilde goes from being reduced to a farmer's wife to defying the country's chauvinism and repressive social codes by offering medical services to the rural population. As tensions mount between the Moroccans and the French colonists, Amine finds himself caught in the crossfire: in solidarity with his Moroccan workers yet also a landowner, despised by the French yet married to a Frenchwoman, and proud of his wife's resolve but ashamed by her refusal to be subjugated. All of them live in the country of others--especially the women, forced to live in the land of men--and with this novel, Leila Slimani issues the first salvo in their emancipation.
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Dilara
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About the Paris Olympics opening show. Apparently, parts of it were censored in some countries, including the song above in the US - because nearly-naked man, LGBTQ representation, & possibly religious iconography. Some people are up in arms because they feel it made a mockery of the Last Supper. Others see it as a homage to the Feast of the Gods by Dutch painter Jan van Bijlert (see top picture) with the singer Philippe Katherine as Dionysus.

Dilara Tagging a book by Leila Slimani because she was in the show's organising committee. 3mo
IuliaC Indeed I've noticed there is a lot of ongoing debate around these scenes 3mo
TEArificbooks They should have done a better job of informing the news casters of what each scene represented, especially if parts of it were being taken out in some countries which would affect anyone interpretation 3mo
20 likes3 comments
review
Mitch
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Pickpick

Slimani manages to create 3 dimensional characters & places through micro moments. Her portrayal of complex human interaction is really nuanced & at times refreshingly honest & brutal. I learnt about the French occupation of Morocco, through the complex web of gender politics, nationalism& suppression woven around the family at the centre of this drama. At times the focus shifted too quickly and I sensed the set up for the trilogy. Minor niggle!

TheBookHippie I sent you a letter with the wrong stamp 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣🤷🏻‍♀️ so I‘ll send it back out on the morrow… OOOOOPS! 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ 2y
Mitch @TheBookHippie no worries! I‘ve done that too! 😘 2y
63 likes2 comments
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Hooked_on_books
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Mehso-so

In the Country of Others follows a Frenchwoman and her Moroccan husband as she tries to navigate his country. It‘s set against rebellion against colonial France and there are some great components: chafing against patriarchy, culture clashes, and more. But some of the story felt disjointed and delving more into the rebellion and its roots would have anchored the story better.

#ReadingAfrica2022 #Morocco

BarbaraBB Not the best way to kick off the challenge 🤷🏻‍♀️ 3y
Hooked_on_books @BarbaraBB No worries, I‘m focusing on the parts that were really good! 😉 3y
Librarybelle It‘s good that you are focusing on the really good parts! 3y
Tamra I recently bailed on the audio - just couldn‘t get into it. 3y
49 likes4 comments
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mirnas
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Pickpick

This novel is quite different, but equally great, from two previous Slimani's novels. She tells a story, partly autobiographical, about a French woman Mathilde and her Maroccan husband Amine who try to survive the turbulent 1950's in Marocco when the colonial regime came to its end. Slimani is an excellent storyteller and definitly one of the best contemporary French writers!