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Meryem Alaoui was born and raised in Morocco, where she managed an independent media group that combined publications in French (TelQuel) and Arabic (Nichane). Straight from the Horse's Mouth, her debut novel, was first published in France, where it has achieved great critical acclaim. After several years in New York, Alaoui now lives in Morocco. Emma Ramadan is an educator and literary translator from French. She is the recipient of the PEN Translation Prize, the Albertine Prize, an NEA Fellowship, and a Fulbright. Her translations include Abdellah Taia's A Country for Dying, Kamel Daoud's Zabor, or The Psalms, and Barbara Molinard's Panics.
A whirlwind story and a lot of fun to read. --BuzzFeed News, New Fall Books You Won't Want To Put Down [A] mesmerizing debut...Alaoui's shimmering prose is funny and original...[Her] tale is one to savor for its language and its verve. --Publishers Weekly (starred review) Bold and irreverent...A refreshing character study. --Kirkus Reviews [A] lively debut novel...funny and profane, rich with the sights and sounds of Casablanca. --Shelf Awareness Unique and refreshing, this debut centers modern Moroccan sex worker Jmiaa as she manages family, friendship, and faith with courage, humor, and candor. --Ms. Magazine Jmiaa's cheek is immediately endearing, as is her dark humor that hides a sordid reality...[Alaoui] brings together cinema and the street, two starkly opposed worlds. The film sets, where Jmiaa is like a bull in a china shop, offer moments of pure jubilation. --France-Amerique This book is so good. It carries you so quickly from despair to roaring laughter and back again. I would happily live in any world Alaoui would like to create for us. --Daisy Johnson, author of Sisters Female friendship, anger, and artistic courage are explored with wit in Alaoui's bold debut. Jmiaa is a woman living in the toughest of conditions but her inability to be anything but her unvarnished and sharp self steers her to surprising new worlds. A vibrant story of resilience told with refreshing honesty. --Marjan Kamali, author of The Stationery Shop and Together Tea A powerful, original novel...one of the best I've read recently and one that will get people talking. --Tahar Ben Jelloun, author of This Blinding Absence of Light The story of a lively young woman, who is funny and courageous, at the heart of a world we don't often see explored in literature, where Meryem Alaoui deftly leads us. --Le Point Following Leila Slimani's Paroles d'honneur, another young Moroccan woman, Meryem Alaoui, looks at a rarely seen side of the society that oppresses women in Morocco. Through the diary of a prostitute in Casablanca, the young author reveals the fragility and the harshness of life for those who are sacrificed, ostracized, left in the shadows. --Lire
