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The Death of Murat Idrissi

The Death of Murat Idrissi

The Death of Murat Idrissi by Tommy Wieringa, translation: Sam Garrett
(Scribe, 2019, 112 pages)

Two venturesome women on a journey through the land of their fathers and mothers. A wrong turn. A bad decision.

They had no idea, when they arrived in Morocco, that their usual freedoms as young European women would not be available. So, when the spry Saleh presents himself as their guide and saviour, they embrace his offer. He extracts them from a tight space, only to lead them inexorably into an even tighter one: and from this far darker space there is no exit.

Their tale of confinement and escape is as old as the landscapes and cultures so vividly depicted in this story of where Europe and Africa come closest to meeting, even if they never quite touch.

The Death of Murat Idrissi was on the longlist of the Man Booker International Prize in 2019.

‘A savagely effective little novel … A nasty masterpiece of narrative tension; it’s brutally spare.’ – Evening Standard
‘The sentences are concise, propelling the action along and keeping readers on the edge of their seats … a vital must-read.’ – Asymptote
The gifted Dutch writer Tommy Wieringa is a bold, intelligent stylist, unafraid of exposing the ugliness of society juxtaposed with the vagaries of human nature. [A] taut, intense contemporary thriller of multiple exploitations … The full mercilessness of the migrant dilemma is confronted here to devastating effect.’ – The Observer

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fiction