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Aya Dane: A novel
"An evocative novel from the award-winning author of Dreams of Maryam Tair.
Aya Dane creates mixed media paintings and writes a diary in her studio above a strange, old Cambridge townhouse. There she lives alone, having left her childhood home in Tangiers. Though she has carved a name for herself in the art world, she allows herself just one close relationship, to an intimate companion named David.
One day, Aya receives a letter from a powerful, enigmatic patron, an invitation to submit her ultimate work to his collection. If he deems it worthy, he promises, her art will live on forever. Aya finds herself unable to resist the mysterious invitation, and challenge.
But as she begins to work on the commissioned painting, from her top-floor perch, the streets of Tangiers reappear to her. Their white-and-blue walls, purple bougainvillea, sweetness and sorrow bring back to life people and events she thought she'd left behind. Aya becomes haunted by forgotten scenes, only to discover that she herself is being painted, on a canvas from which it seems impossible to escape."
Aya Dane creates mixed media paintings and writes a diary in her studio above a strange, old Cambridge townhouse. There she lives alone, having left her childhood home in Tangiers. Though she has carved a name for herself in the art world, she allows herself just one close relationship, to an intimate companion named David.
One day, Aya receives a letter from a powerful, enigmatic patron, an invitation to submit her ultimate work to his collection. If he deems it worthy, he promises, her art will live on forever. Aya finds herself unable to resist the mysterious invitation, and challenge.
But as she begins to work on the commissioned painting, from her top-floor perch, the streets of Tangiers reappear to her. Their white-and-blue walls, purple bougainvillea, sweetness and sorrow bring back to life people and events she thought she'd left behind. Aya becomes haunted by forgotten scenes, only to discover that she herself is being painted, on a canvas from which it seems impossible to escape."
- GenresMorocco
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
2 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 24, 2019
After the wonderful Dreams of Maryam Tair: Blue Boots and Orange Blossoms this book is a disappointment. It started out engrossing enough, but fizzled out in the last quarter. It could be that because unlike Dreams of Maryam Tair which is fantasy-magical realism this novel is realistic fiction. With fantasy and especially magical realism, it's easy to accept unrealistic elements and still find the story believable, but not so with realistic fiction. In general I hate endings where you find out that . In this case it just seemed like a cop out!
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August 19, 2019Mhani Alaoui’s new novel, Aya Dane (Interlink 2018), provides a reflection on identity in the contemporary world. Alaoui teaches anthropology in Casablanca, where she grew up, and wrote her dissertation on immigration. This and her previous novel, Dreams of Maryam Tair: Blue Boots and Orange Blossoms (Interlink 2015), focus on women’s experiences and postcolonial realities.
Aya Dane is a mysterious novel, leading the reader on a journey through the experiences of a Boston artist who grew up in Morocco. It opens with an intriguing statement from the protagonist, as if we stepped into her home and found a letter in her place. It raises questions for the reader: Has she gone? Where? Why? Is she returning? Is she dead? What happened? The story alternates between present-day Boston and Aya Dane’s childhood in Tangier (spelled “Tangiers” in the book).
One of this novel’s contributions is its representation of a Moroccan’s experience of growing up in a postcolonial reality. Among the most formative moments of Aya Dane’s childhood is the day she inadvertently wanders into the private property of a wealthy man, and he shouts at her and releases his German Shepherd to chase her off the grounds. This experience challenges the romantic notions she had held of Tangier as an international city in which people of different backgrounds could come together to enjoy its beauty:
She also never again smiled when her mother told her stories of the Tangiers of old, of eccentric expats and wealthy foreigners. That was the day Aya buried Tangiers’ beauty and the dreamlike stories of its free, bygone years. That was also the day she understood that there was an ‘us’ and a ‘them,’ and that she would always be one of the ‘them’–strange, cut off, written out of her own story. The day she realized that she had been born on the wrong side of the world. (50)
This criticism reveals how rosy views of 1940s-50s Tangier tend to focus on Western perspectives, to the detriment of locals. Similarly, many Americans’ only association to Casablanca or Morocco is the film Casablanca (1942), which has no connection to life in Morocco. It was filmed in California, the cast is American, and Casablanca stands in as an exotic and imaginary location for an American story of World War II. For a recent and popular non-American example of representations of Morocco that denigrate Moroccans through their exclusion, consider the Spanish telenovela “El tiempo entre costuras” (English title: “The Time in Between”), which premiered in 2013 in Spain before being acquired by media in many other countries, including Netflix. It features no major Moroccan characters.
Alaoui reflects on this postcolonial blindness, providing a Moroccan character’s perspective. As translation supporters such as Words Without Borders remind us, reading literature can have political implications, providing one of the most effective tools for developing empathy. Alaoui allows English-language readers to develop their empathy for Moroccans and for everyone in postcolonial situations.
A second memorable contribution in Aya Dane is its exploration of immigration and displacement, from several different perspectives. First, the perspective of those who cross the Mediterranean in search of opportunity: “And still they try the crossing in the hopes that maybe they’ll be one of the lucky ones, one of those who sets foot on the shore on the other side” (155). This perspective parallels the experience of other groups of people from the global South, crossing borders to reach the global North. Second, the perspective of immigrant experiences, including nostalgia/homesickness and the crafting of identity in an attempt to belong:
No one ever wondered what reaching the other shore would be like. Or perhaps no one dared to dream beyond the passage. The dream was wrapped up in the excruciating desire of departure and arrival. Beyond, was a mystery shrouded in words gleaned here and there, fragments of stories, or fantasies. (155)
In this area, Mhani Alaoui’s latest novel dialogues with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Americanah (2013). Most fiction on immigration and displacement stops here, but Alaoui also includes a look at expatriates, drawing a distinction between expatriates and immigrants: “Expats do not have a real claim on the city of their choosing, nor do they care to have one. They are the traveling strangers, the privileged elite whose true wealth resides in their detachment, in the ties they are not obliged to honor” (161). Alaoui’s own experience, having lived extensively in Morocco and the U.S., combined with her anthropological training and work experience, make her well-situated to reflect on issues of identity in the contemporary world.
Finally, my personal favorite part of this novel is a minor detail in the narrative. Aya Dane has a teacher who encourages her, and who intervenes on her behalf at a crucial moment, enabling her access to resources that would allow her to fulfill her potential in any field she chose:
As Abensour Stirling was about to climb back into his vehicle, she touched his arm and, in a low, urgent voice, told him what he needed to know about Aya Dane. He turned slowly to face the small, nondescript woman whom he would never have noticed, but whose determination was a thing of heaven, something akin to the work of angels, and that, even he, with his cynicism, could see; and a smile lit his dead eyes. (170)
For me, a rather sentimental reader, this teacher represents the candle in the darkness: that spark of hope, the willingness to step out to support the best in human potential.
The next book on my to-read list is Alaoui’s first novel, Dreams of Maryam Tair. Thanks to Interlink for providing access to interesting voices and perspectives!
Aya Dane is a mysterious novel, leading the reader on a journey through the experiences of a Boston artist who grew up in Morocco. It opens with an intriguing statement from the protagonist, as if we stepped into her home and found a letter in her place. It raises questions for the reader: Has she gone? Where? Why? Is she returning? Is she dead? What happened? The story alternates between present-day Boston and Aya Dane’s childhood in Tangier (spelled “Tangiers” in the book).
One of this novel’s contributions is its representation of a Moroccan’s experience of growing up in a postcolonial reality. Among the most formative moments of Aya Dane’s childhood is the day she inadvertently wanders into the private property of a wealthy man, and he shouts at her and releases his German Shepherd to chase her off the grounds. This experience challenges the romantic notions she had held of Tangier as an international city in which people of different backgrounds could come together to enjoy its beauty:
She also never again smiled when her mother told her stories of the Tangiers of old, of eccentric expats and wealthy foreigners. That was the day Aya buried Tangiers’ beauty and the dreamlike stories of its free, bygone years. That was also the day she understood that there was an ‘us’ and a ‘them,’ and that she would always be one of the ‘them’–strange, cut off, written out of her own story. The day she realized that she had been born on the wrong side of the world. (50)
This criticism reveals how rosy views of 1940s-50s Tangier tend to focus on Western perspectives, to the detriment of locals. Similarly, many Americans’ only association to Casablanca or Morocco is the film Casablanca (1942), which has no connection to life in Morocco. It was filmed in California, the cast is American, and Casablanca stands in as an exotic and imaginary location for an American story of World War II. For a recent and popular non-American example of representations of Morocco that denigrate Moroccans through their exclusion, consider the Spanish telenovela “El tiempo entre costuras” (English title: “The Time in Between”), which premiered in 2013 in Spain before being acquired by media in many other countries, including Netflix. It features no major Moroccan characters.
Alaoui reflects on this postcolonial blindness, providing a Moroccan character’s perspective. As translation supporters such as Words Without Borders remind us, reading literature can have political implications, providing one of the most effective tools for developing empathy. Alaoui allows English-language readers to develop their empathy for Moroccans and for everyone in postcolonial situations.
A second memorable contribution in Aya Dane is its exploration of immigration and displacement, from several different perspectives. First, the perspective of those who cross the Mediterranean in search of opportunity: “And still they try the crossing in the hopes that maybe they’ll be one of the lucky ones, one of those who sets foot on the shore on the other side” (155). This perspective parallels the experience of other groups of people from the global South, crossing borders to reach the global North. Second, the perspective of immigrant experiences, including nostalgia/homesickness and the crafting of identity in an attempt to belong:
No one ever wondered what reaching the other shore would be like. Or perhaps no one dared to dream beyond the passage. The dream was wrapped up in the excruciating desire of departure and arrival. Beyond, was a mystery shrouded in words gleaned here and there, fragments of stories, or fantasies. (155)
In this area, Mhani Alaoui’s latest novel dialogues with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Americanah (2013). Most fiction on immigration and displacement stops here, but Alaoui also includes a look at expatriates, drawing a distinction between expatriates and immigrants: “Expats do not have a real claim on the city of their choosing, nor do they care to have one. They are the traveling strangers, the privileged elite whose true wealth resides in their detachment, in the ties they are not obliged to honor” (161). Alaoui’s own experience, having lived extensively in Morocco and the U.S., combined with her anthropological training and work experience, make her well-situated to reflect on issues of identity in the contemporary world.
Finally, my personal favorite part of this novel is a minor detail in the narrative. Aya Dane has a teacher who encourages her, and who intervenes on her behalf at a crucial moment, enabling her access to resources that would allow her to fulfill her potential in any field she chose:
As Abensour Stirling was about to climb back into his vehicle, she touched his arm and, in a low, urgent voice, told him what he needed to know about Aya Dane. He turned slowly to face the small, nondescript woman whom he would never have noticed, but whose determination was a thing of heaven, something akin to the work of angels, and that, even he, with his cynicism, could see; and a smile lit his dead eyes. (170)
For me, a rather sentimental reader, this teacher represents the candle in the darkness: that spark of hope, the willingness to step out to support the best in human potential.
The next book on my to-read list is Alaoui’s first novel, Dreams of Maryam Tair. Thanks to Interlink for providing access to interesting voices and perspectives!
July 18, 2019
Too picturesque for me
November 14, 2021
A very dark story that I can't say I enjoyed. However, I was impressed with the author's writing style and creativity. I will try her previous books and any forthcoming.
March 12, 2026
Holy shit what the fuck? OK time to lock in and write 1500 words on this
January 11, 2019
Here's my review for "Eye on the Indies" over at The Woven Tale Press:
https://www.thewoventalepress.net/201...
https://www.thewoventalepress.net/201...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews