Fugitive Light: A Novel(Middle East Literature in Translation)

An Arab artist in Tangier grapples with political and erotic issues in this pivotal work by the most celebrated Moroccan author of the past twenty-five years. Cosmopolitan Tangier, heart and soul of Morocco, sets the stage for this smoldering novel of dreams and lovers, both before and after the nation's independence. Al 'Ayshuni, a middle-aged painter of bohemian and political inclinations has fallen in love with a younger woman, the alluring Ghaylana. But fate intervenes when she leaves him for new adventures in Spain. Now, Al 'Ayshuni befriends Ghaylana's daughter, the impressionable Fatima. Even as Al 'Ayshuni struggles to recapture the "fugitive light" of his lost youth - as well as that of a younger generation of artists and activists - so Fatima discovers the twin fires of love and revolution, both of which are doomed to extinction. Written with the simplicity of a parable and imbued with a visceral visual sense, this remarkable book explores the lives of three people whose hopes and passions are ruled - and ultimately shattered - by laws both visible and unseen. Fugitive Light explores the profound dilemma of Moroccan artists torn between old French ties and youthful anti-colonialism. Struggling to balance two cultures, they exist in a landscape haunted by inner conflict and governed at once by abandon and conformity.

About the Author :
Mohammed Berrada is a key figure in Moroccan letters. His works of fiction include the acclaimed The Game of Forgetting, A Summer Never To Be Repeated, and a short story anthology, Skinning. His other books include works on literary criticism and theory, and several translations from the French. Issa J. Boullata is professor emeritus at McGill University in Montreal. He is a well-known literary scholar, critic and translator. He translated Berrada's first novel, The Game of Forgetting.

Review :
"When I mix my colors and begin to paint, the luminosity surrounding me begins to be transferred to my canvas as a piercing brilliance, from whose flashes filters the hue of a light that is diffused as it embodies the contours of my dream's space. Running after the fugitive light is an act full of torment but it exudes pleasure and the enticements of mirage...It can never be compared to the sterile act of searching for words to capture shreds of stored feelings. Who among us does not run away from something? I return to my lines and colors: I run away from the words of these memoirs and renounce the illusion of recording through them the experiences I lived. I am content to repeat: What's gone is gone, light and color remain for me as well as space, of which I dream through them....Everything else is prattle and sermonizing blown by the winds." - from Fugitive Light