Biographie

I was born in Fes on December 1st, 1944.
After first having attended the local coranic school, I switched to the bilingual (French-Moroccan) primary school the age of 6. The school head being French, the morning lessons were in French, in the afternoons they were in Arabic.
In 1955 my parents moved to Tangier where, together with my brother, I attend the strait’s primary school and passed my courses.
In 1956 I entered the Ibn Al Khatib high school; most courses were taught in French.
After getting my certificate, I switched to the French Regnault high school where I obtained my baccalaureate in 1963.
Philosophy studies in Rabat.
March 23, 1965: student demonstrations in larger Moroccan cities. Repression, arrests.
July 1966: my philosophy studies are interrupted; I am sent to a disciplinary camp run by the army (first to El Hajeb, then to Ahermemou in eastern Morocco) together with 94 other students suspected of having organized the March 65 demonstrations.
In January 1968 I was liberated and returned to university.
October 1968: I got my first teaching assignment in Tetouan at the Charif Idrissi high school as their first ever philosophy teacher. The same year I published my first poem “l’Aube des dalles” in the magazine “Souffles”. I wrote the poem in secret at the camp.
October 1970: I was transferred to the Mohammed V high school in Cassablanca. Due to student strikes I did very little teaching that year. The publishing house Atalantes, linked to “Souffles” and directed by the poet Abdellatif Laabi, published my first volume of poetry, “Hommes sous linceul de silence”, with a foreword by Abraham Serfaty.

François Maspero published the collection of poems “Cicatrices du soleil” in 1972 in the collection “Voix” directed by Fanchita Maspero.
In 1973 I started working as a free lancer for the book section of Le Monde.
In September 1973, my first novel “Harrouda” was published by Maurice Nadeau at Denoël. My book benefited from the prestige linked to Nadeau’s personality. I received letters from Roland Barthes and Samuel Beckett.

In December 1974, Jacques Fauvet the director of Le Monde asked me to cover the pilgrimage to Mecca for the paper. A series of three different articles was published early January 1975.

June 1975: I defended my doctoral thesis in social psychiatry on “affective and sexual problems of northern-African workers in France”. In the audience, Jean Genet, whom I had recently met. Based on my thesis I wrote “La plus haute des solitudes”. The manuscript was refused by most Parisian publishing houses, before being accepted by Le Seuil on the condition that they also got to publish my next books. Maurice Nadeau, who had earlier published “Harrouda”, also brought out my second novel “La reclusion solitaire”, again at Denoël who offered me a contract. When Nadeau left Denoël, I refused to be published by Denoël any longer. Together with most of his writers, amongst whom Georges Pérec, Angelo Rinaldi, Hector Bianccioti, I joined a support committee for Nadeau.
“La plus haute des solitudes” was met with an unexpected success. Le Seuil became my only publisher.

1976: “Les amandiers sont morts de leurs blessures”, poetry, Maspero

1978: “Moha le fou, Moha le sage”, novel, Le Seuil.
1979: Death of Pierre Viansson-Ponté, one of the directors of Le Monde, who had become my journalistic mentor as well as a friend and protector. Without him many of my texts would never have been published.
1980: “A l’insu du souvenir”, poetry, Maspero.
1981 : “La prière de l’absent”, novel, Le Seuil (I lost the first three chapters and in order to re-write them returned to the same place and created the same conditions in which I had originally written them.)
1983: “L’écrivain public”, autobiographic text, Le Seuil.

1984 : “Hospitalité française”, essay on racism in France ; mixed reception both by the press and certain book sellers; the provocative title and the first three chapters are judged too harsh for France; I listed racist crimes committed over 1,5 years. A revised and adapted version will be published in 1997.

1984: “La fiancée de l’eau” followed by “Conversations with Mr. Saïd Hammadi, Algerian worker”, Theatre, Actes Sud. The latter was created by Antoine Vitez at the Chaillot theatre. “La fiancée de l’eau” by G. Tordjman at the Théatre de l’Est in Metz.
1985: “L’enfant de sable”, novel, Le Seuil.
1987 : “La nuit sacrée”, Novel, sequel to “L’enfant de sable”, Le Seuil, obtained the Prix Goncourt.
I continued to write during the year I spent promoting the Goncourt.
1990: “Jours de silence à Tanger”, text about my father’s last years; he died a year after the book came out.
1991: “Les yeux baissés”, novel, Le Seuil. Thanks to Chantal Lapique, the book was awarded the Prix des Hemisphere in Guadeloupe.
1991: “Alberto Giacometti”, essay, Editions Flohic; this book will be reissued by the same publisher with a new title “La rue d’un seul”. After the bankruptcy of the publisher, whom I have to sue to recuperate my royalties, the book is published by Le Seuil in 1993.

1992: “L’ange aveugle”, short stories, Le Seuil; a series of short stories on the camorra and the mafia first published in the Naples newspaper Il Mattino.
1994: “L’homme rompu”, novel, Le Seuil, inspired by Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s book “Corruption”. In appreciation, I suggest transferring part of my royalties to Pram. He writes me a beautiful letter to thank me.
1994: “La soudure fraternelle”, s story about friendship.
1995: “Collected Poetry”, Le Seuil has brought together all my poetry in one volume.
1995: “Le premier amour est toujours le dernier”, short stories, Le Seuil.
1996 : “Racines de la galère”, novel ; my friend Eric Orsenna asked me to write a short text for adolescents for his collection “Libre”.
1997: “La nuit de l’erreur”, novel, Le Seuil; it took me four years and three re-writes to finish this book.
1998: “Le racisme expliqué à ma fille”, essay; Le Seuil; this book originated from questions my daughter Mérième asked me. I did not intend to publish it. The book has been translated into 25 different languages, amongst which siSwati, ixiXhosa and Afrikaans.
1999: “L’auberge des pauvres”; novel; Le Seuil; novel about Italy and the devastation caused by passion ; visiting Naples I discovered the ‘albergo di poveri’ and invented a story set in its basement. Pironti a former boxer turned editor, gets hold of the French edition, has it translated and publishes the novel without a contract.  A few months later, the book is published by my regular publisher Einaudi. A lawsuit for piracy follows. Pironti counter-sues for defamation, as I have called him “a thief and a pirate”. Rift with my friend and translator Egi Voletrrani, who deceived me and was responsible for my problems with Pironti.
2000: “Cette aveuglante absence de lumière”, novel, Le Seuil. The book caused controversy both in the French and Moroccan press. Some of my political adversaries and known or hidden enemies seized this occasion to attack me.

In March 2003, I published “Amours sorcières”, a series of short stories on love, friendship and treason – a way to respond to my attackers and so-called friends who turned out to be opportunists and traitors.
At the same time, Le Seuil published a new, paperback edition of “L’éloge de l’amitié” (published in 1995 by Arléa as “La soudure fraternelle”), followed by “L’ombre de la trahison”.
I collaborate to a series of photo books:
“Sahara” with Bernard Descamp;
“Fès” with Bruno Barbey (Ed. De l’Imprimerie Nationale);
“Medina” with Jean-Marc Tingaud (Ed. Assouline).

I continue to write for several newspapers, mainly abroad.
Italy: after having written for Il Corriere della Sera and Panorama, I write for La Repubblica and L’Espresso. I cover Arab and Muslim topics, write on immigration and various other subjects.
Spain: after having collaborated to El Pais for several years, I am now a chronicler for the Barcelona newspaper Lavanguardia.
Sweden: I occasionally write for the Aftonbladet.

Since the publication of my book on racism, I am often invited by schools in France as well as other European countries to meet students.

My books have been translated in several languages.
“L’enfant de sable” and “La nuit sacrée” have been translated into 43 languages. “Le racisme expliqué à ma fille” into 25, amongst which esperanto! All others are available in approximately 15 languages.

Most of my work is translated into Arabic. Unfortunately, the Moroccan edition of which I revise the translation is systematically pirated by pseudo-editors in Syria and Egypt. To make matters worse, they redo the translation and take out fragments susceptible of annoying the local censorship. I have so often protested against these practices that I have come to believe this to be a lost cause. The piracy that afflicts the Arab world is symptomatic of the condition of its culture.