by Tahar Ben Jelloun
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Product Description
In this lyrical, hallucinatory novel set in Morocco, Tahar Ben Jelloun offers an imaginative and radical critique of contemporary Arab social customs and Islamic law. The Sand Child tells the story of a Moroccan father's effort to thwart the consequences of Islam's inheritance laws regarding female offspring. Already the father of seven daughters, Hajji Ahmed determines that his eighth child will be a male. Accordingly, the infant, a girl, is named Mohammed Ahmed and raised as a young man with all the privileges granted exclusively to men in traditional Arab-Islamic societies. As she matures, however, Ahmed's desire to have children marks the beginning of her sexual evolution, and as a woman named Zahra, Ahmed begins to explore her true sexual identity. Drawing on the rich Arabic oral tradition, Ben Jelloun relates the extraordinary events of Ahmed's life through a professional storyteller and the listeners who have gathered in a Marrakesh market square in the 1950s to hear his tale. A poetic vision of power, colonialism, and gender in North Africa, The Sand Child has been justifiably celebrated around the world as a daring and significant work of international fiction.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Wow, 2007-10-09
I purchased this book for a class, and Ill admit, once I picked it up, I couldnt put it down. The relationship between the characters and gender identity issues and very interesting. The only part I didnt like (and debated in class), was the multiple narrators that created a story within a story. It seemed out of sync and a little unnecessary, but thats just my opinion! A+ I'd still recommend it to anyone.
4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 A terrible novel., 2005-04-27
First, you must ask yourself if you are reading this for enjoyment or academic purposes, because you are unlikely to get any enjoyment out of this novel. While offering an interesting critique of society in Morocco, the novel is littered with attempts at complexity that ultimately drag it down. The author's intent to make this story have a multitude of stories isn't entirely wrong from the beginning, however as the story evolves the reader may find a lack of interest. This is because the characters are almost entirely shallow constructs, attempts at characters. While the story has many plot twists, I repeatedly found myself thinking, "Why should I care about what happens to these characers?" And the answer is, You Shouldn't! The author gives no life to the bland and pathetic list of characers, which not only grows, but also has character playing multiple roles.
As to an academic reading of the novel, it simply serves to challenge the reader by following this complex story. If that is incentive, I might add that there are many novels with complex stories just as challenging and much more intriguing. In accordance with the statement on Moroccan society, there are many books which discuss this in an engaging way.
An earlier reviewer criticized the translation, perhaps that was the problem. However, I found the real flaw here to be a poorly constructed story.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
 Poor translation of a major novel, 2001-03-11
This translation--unfortunately the only one of the Sand Child-- misses the mark in conveying an accurate representation of Ben Jelloun's novel. There are a number of glaring errors and omissions of original text. If it is at all possible to read the work in the original, one must. My rating is of the translation, not the original.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
 Amazing, 2001-03-04
If you are interested in the a dynamic world of storytelling read The Sand Child. It takes you through many tales which weave in and out of social constructs. What constructs create a female? What constructs create a male? When I read this novel it took me through a range of emotions. It took me into arid land and it made me feel as if I was experiencing The Sand Child's world. This book question gender construction. It has all the makings of a wonderful novel. I loved it and it made me change my perspective on how I view my world.
7 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
poetry in prose, 1997-10-16
Tahar Ben Jelloun is a master of the written word, able to weave into his novels issues of social and political concern while at the same time composing sometimes humorous, often lyrical, and always thoughtful story-lines.
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