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De dood van Murat Idrissi
nan
128 pages, Hardcover
First published March 3, 2017
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1315 people want to read
About the author
Tommy Wieringa
50 books524 followersTommy Wieringa (born 20 May 1967 in Goor, Overijssel) is a Dutch writer. He received the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs in 2006 for his novel Joe Speedboat.
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March 30, 2019
He is not only a stranger now, he is an enemy. He has nothing left in common with the nice boy she saw yesterday.
The final book from the Man Booker International longlist and a shortlist contender for me.
The Death of Murat has been translated by Sam Garrett from Tommy Wieringa's 2017 Dutch original De dood van Murat Idrissi.
Garrett is translator of, amongst other authors and novels, Arnon Grunberg and his wonderful Tirza, Gerard Reve's long-considered untranslatable The Evenings, Herman Koch's books including The Dinner and the works of Tim Krabbé, and he does another excellent job here.
Wieringa's 2012 novel Dit zijn de namen (translated by Garrett as These Are All the Names) focused on the plight of migrants, specifically there refugees, but in an allegorical setting.
The Death of Murat is more specific, based on a court case Wieringa witnessed in 2004, and focuses on economic migration, specifically from Morocco to the Netherlands, and also on the experience of the 2nd generation.
The novel - or novella, it is barely 100 pages - opens with a almost biblical overview of the creation and history the Straits of Gibraltar, before the narrator zooms in on one modern-day ferry making the crossing from Morocco to Spain.
Everything clatters in the driving wind: the girls on the top deck brush the hair from their faces. The hazy blue mountain ranges, rising on both sides of the Strait. The places you will never go, the life there. Ilham’s eyes wander over the mountains of the Rif, the country they are leaving behind. Why did they stay so long in Rabat? They had the car – they could have gone south, to the desert, but instead they spent the whole time hanging around the city. The terrace at Café Maure; the view of the Bou Regreg estuary and the Atlantic Ocean behind. The boys. The contraband at the boats.
It feels like a loss, that they didn’t go to the desert, like a missed opportunity. They could have asked Saleh to go along; women in Morocco rarely travel alone. The looks, the comments – if it remains at that.
They’ve been on the road for six weeks now, two weeks longer than planned. There had been problems. Situations. Those are behind them now; most of them have been solved.
Ilham and Thouraya are the Dutch-born daughters of Moroccan immigrants. The novel is narrated in the third person but mainly from Ilham's perspective, and she recalls how her attempts to assimilate were doomed post 9/11:
She watched as the little opportunity, the crack that had poses a possibility, sealed over; people looked away and kept their distance, as though her body from one day to the next, became a hostile object ... Either you are with us, said the most powerful man in the world, or you are with the terrorists. The plans, his words – they broke her world, the whole world, in two, into we over hereand them over there. And Ilhan became them. And her body became over there. She felt how the enmity nestled in her organs, how she became infected by the fear and the aversion of others. That is how she became what others thought they were seeing, a double transformation.
Seeking both a good time, but also to perhaps discover some of their roots, the young women, 6 weeks ago, embarked on a road trip in a hired BMW to Morocco, only to find themselves equally 'foreign' there as in the Netherlands:
Even though they were in their parents’ homeland and staying with relatives, even though they identified with the people there, they were not Moroccans. That is what they had in common. That they were seen as tourists. That they paid tourist prices. They were the children of two kingdoms, they carried the green passport of the Royaume du Maroc and the red-lead one of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but in both countries they were, above all, foreigners.
There after some scrapes - literally in the case of their hire car - they fall in gratefully with an old acquaintance (with a rather dubious reputation) from the Netherlands, Saleh, who they again run in to (not literally). He is much more at ease in the local society - in part due to his gender, in part as he something of a fixer - and helps sort out their car, but then he takes them to a local village - to see the 'real Morocco' - and to the home of a poor family:
Thouraya, with her Miu Miu sunglasses and a rose-pink D&G bag over her shoulder, looked like a film star on her way to do charity work.
There they meet the youth, Murat Idrissi, and his mother and Saleh makes his proposal: that they smuggle Murat into Europe, hidden in the tire well of their BMW.
Appeals to their pity and to their ethnic loyalty fail:
Let me tell you something,” Saleh said. “Everybody made the crossing at some point – my parents, yours too – and you’ve got a good life because of it. But you’re not willing to help him. What kind of a person are you?
But their conscious remains uneasy at turning down the request - and when money is offered by the family (which the reader senses has been Saleh's intention and desire all along - this is clearly not his first time facilitating such an escapade) they agree. All this is told in back story, taking us back to the ferry and Ilham, who is feeling increasingly uneasy:
Ilham turns her head and looks at the crests, the sandy-coloured Spanish land beyond. Her mood has swung. Something has been disturbed. The order of things. They started off the day with the three of them, Thouraya, Saleh, and her, united in a conspiracy to get Murat to the far side. First they picked him up in Témara, in Tangier harbour number five; Fahd showed up – he was going to take the spare tyre back to Holland. Murat had nestled down into the deep hollow made for it, where he would spend the crossing, in the dark, covered with baggage.
The title of the book deliberately gives away what happens - something goes tragically wrong and Murat suffocates in the book. Saleh and his friends quickly absent themselves, leaving Ilham and Thoureya in Spain, far from home, with little money, and with a decomposing corpse in their boot:
The greasy stench seems to stick to everything – it is a physical presence. The heat speeds up the decay. The boy has left his body and communicates with them through a ghastly stench. Don’t forget me, his smell says.
The rest of the brief novel follows them on their trip North, as they listen to Cheb Khaled (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Peklm...), ponder their lives and future back in the Netherlands, encounter some young lads, each group hoping to use the other, and desperately decide what to do with the body. To Wieringa's credit he avoids a dramatic or neat solution, and gives us a very balanced view of Ilham and Thoureya, with their different personalities and different aims: indeed all of the characters are presented with their strengths and flaws, impressively for such a short novel.
I said at outset Wieringa had made the decision to make this book specific. And gives his own age/gender/ethnicity/religion, the novel does seem to have attracted suggestions of cultural appropriation (can Wieringa really speak to the experiences of 2nd generation female immigrants from a Muslim background and a generation after his) as well as 'fridging' (a new concept to me until I read it in reviews of this novel).
They are very fair questions to ask, and indeed tricky ground. But on balance I'm inclined to feel that Wieringa is approaching this from a compassionate perspective rather than appropriating anyone's culture. The subject matter feels key - and the approach adopted by Jenny Erpenbeck in last year's Go, Went, Gone (where the experience of immigrants is narrated by a rather naive German professor) also has its issues. And the 'fridging' is in many respects key to the novel - many bodies are found dumped alongside the motorways in Spain or washed up on the shore - and Wieringa looks at what may be behind how one such body got there: he doesn't give us much of Murat's own back story but then if he did, that would tilt towards cultural appropriation again.
But I fully understand others who have different views.
Recommended.
The final book from the Man Booker International longlist and a shortlist contender for me.
The Death of Murat has been translated by Sam Garrett from Tommy Wieringa's 2017 Dutch original De dood van Murat Idrissi.
Garrett is translator of, amongst other authors and novels, Arnon Grunberg and his wonderful Tirza, Gerard Reve's long-considered untranslatable The Evenings, Herman Koch's books including The Dinner and the works of Tim Krabbé, and he does another excellent job here.
Wieringa's 2012 novel Dit zijn de namen (translated by Garrett as These Are All the Names) focused on the plight of migrants, specifically there refugees, but in an allegorical setting.
The Death of Murat is more specific, based on a court case Wieringa witnessed in 2004, and focuses on economic migration, specifically from Morocco to the Netherlands, and also on the experience of the 2nd generation.
The novel - or novella, it is barely 100 pages - opens with a almost biblical overview of the creation and history the Straits of Gibraltar, before the narrator zooms in on one modern-day ferry making the crossing from Morocco to Spain.
Everything clatters in the driving wind: the girls on the top deck brush the hair from their faces. The hazy blue mountain ranges, rising on both sides of the Strait. The places you will never go, the life there. Ilham’s eyes wander over the mountains of the Rif, the country they are leaving behind. Why did they stay so long in Rabat? They had the car – they could have gone south, to the desert, but instead they spent the whole time hanging around the city. The terrace at Café Maure; the view of the Bou Regreg estuary and the Atlantic Ocean behind. The boys. The contraband at the boats.
It feels like a loss, that they didn’t go to the desert, like a missed opportunity. They could have asked Saleh to go along; women in Morocco rarely travel alone. The looks, the comments – if it remains at that.
They’ve been on the road for six weeks now, two weeks longer than planned. There had been problems. Situations. Those are behind them now; most of them have been solved.
Ilham and Thouraya are the Dutch-born daughters of Moroccan immigrants. The novel is narrated in the third person but mainly from Ilham's perspective, and she recalls how her attempts to assimilate were doomed post 9/11:
She watched as the little opportunity, the crack that had poses a possibility, sealed over; people looked away and kept their distance, as though her body from one day to the next, became a hostile object ... Either you are with us, said the most powerful man in the world, or you are with the terrorists. The plans, his words – they broke her world, the whole world, in two, into we over hereand them over there. And Ilhan became them. And her body became over there. She felt how the enmity nestled in her organs, how she became infected by the fear and the aversion of others. That is how she became what others thought they were seeing, a double transformation.
Seeking both a good time, but also to perhaps discover some of their roots, the young women, 6 weeks ago, embarked on a road trip in a hired BMW to Morocco, only to find themselves equally 'foreign' there as in the Netherlands:
Even though they were in their parents’ homeland and staying with relatives, even though they identified with the people there, they were not Moroccans. That is what they had in common. That they were seen as tourists. That they paid tourist prices. They were the children of two kingdoms, they carried the green passport of the Royaume du Maroc and the red-lead one of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but in both countries they were, above all, foreigners.
There after some scrapes - literally in the case of their hire car - they fall in gratefully with an old acquaintance (with a rather dubious reputation) from the Netherlands, Saleh, who they again run in to (not literally). He is much more at ease in the local society - in part due to his gender, in part as he something of a fixer - and helps sort out their car, but then he takes them to a local village - to see the 'real Morocco' - and to the home of a poor family:
Thouraya, with her Miu Miu sunglasses and a rose-pink D&G bag over her shoulder, looked like a film star on her way to do charity work.
There they meet the youth, Murat Idrissi, and his mother and Saleh makes his proposal: that they smuggle Murat into Europe, hidden in the tire well of their BMW.
Appeals to their pity and to their ethnic loyalty fail:
Let me tell you something,” Saleh said. “Everybody made the crossing at some point – my parents, yours too – and you’ve got a good life because of it. But you’re not willing to help him. What kind of a person are you?
But their conscious remains uneasy at turning down the request - and when money is offered by the family (which the reader senses has been Saleh's intention and desire all along - this is clearly not his first time facilitating such an escapade) they agree. All this is told in back story, taking us back to the ferry and Ilham, who is feeling increasingly uneasy:
Ilham turns her head and looks at the crests, the sandy-coloured Spanish land beyond. Her mood has swung. Something has been disturbed. The order of things. They started off the day with the three of them, Thouraya, Saleh, and her, united in a conspiracy to get Murat to the far side. First they picked him up in Témara, in Tangier harbour number five; Fahd showed up – he was going to take the spare tyre back to Holland. Murat had nestled down into the deep hollow made for it, where he would spend the crossing, in the dark, covered with baggage.
The title of the book deliberately gives away what happens - something goes tragically wrong and Murat suffocates in the book. Saleh and his friends quickly absent themselves, leaving Ilham and Thoureya in Spain, far from home, with little money, and with a decomposing corpse in their boot:
The greasy stench seems to stick to everything – it is a physical presence. The heat speeds up the decay. The boy has left his body and communicates with them through a ghastly stench. Don’t forget me, his smell says.
The rest of the brief novel follows them on their trip North, as they listen to Cheb Khaled (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Peklm...), ponder their lives and future back in the Netherlands, encounter some young lads, each group hoping to use the other, and desperately decide what to do with the body. To Wieringa's credit he avoids a dramatic or neat solution, and gives us a very balanced view of Ilham and Thoureya, with their different personalities and different aims: indeed all of the characters are presented with their strengths and flaws, impressively for such a short novel.
I said at outset Wieringa had made the decision to make this book specific. And gives his own age/gender/ethnicity/religion, the novel does seem to have attracted suggestions of cultural appropriation (can Wieringa really speak to the experiences of 2nd generation female immigrants from a Muslim background and a generation after his) as well as 'fridging' (a new concept to me until I read it in reviews of this novel).
They are very fair questions to ask, and indeed tricky ground. But on balance I'm inclined to feel that Wieringa is approaching this from a compassionate perspective rather than appropriating anyone's culture. The subject matter feels key - and the approach adopted by Jenny Erpenbeck in last year's Go, Went, Gone (where the experience of immigrants is narrated by a rather naive German professor) also has its issues. And the 'fridging' is in many respects key to the novel - many bodies are found dumped alongside the motorways in Spain or washed up on the shore - and Wieringa looks at what may be behind how one such body got there: he doesn't give us much of Murat's own back story but then if he did, that would tilt towards cultural appropriation again.
But I fully understand others who have different views.
Recommended.
February 8, 2020
Let me start with the positive feedback. You can read this booklet in little more than an hour, and it really captivates you. As the title and the blurb immediately give away, it’s based on a true story of a Moroccan migrant who was smuggled over the Strait of Gibraltar. Wieringa brings this story in a swirling style with a lot of attention to mood and ambiance. And the way that migrant, Murat Idrissi, perishes is indeed downright tragic.
But contrary to what you would expect, the book lacks focus. The emphasis is only partly on this incident and not at all on the person and background of Murat. Instead, Wieringa zooms in on how the young people involved in the drama deal with it. Protagonist Ilham, a Dutch-Moroccan girl with a rather hesitant character, is nicely drawn: her internal struggle of how to handle the matter (the corpse in the trunk) gets a lot of attention. Unfortunately, all other characters are made of cardboard and respond to all common clichés: Ilham's girlfriend is an unscrupulous slut, their Moroccan friend a charismatic thief, and all Moroccan boys and men (both in Morocco and in the Netherlands) are constantly horny. The way the plot is sketched is also hardly credible.
It seems to me that Wieringa has written this exciting but superficial booklet in a haste and has hardly thought through both the composition and the drawing of the characters. So despite the stylistic swirl, to me this was worth only 2 stars.
But contrary to what you would expect, the book lacks focus. The emphasis is only partly on this incident and not at all on the person and background of Murat. Instead, Wieringa zooms in on how the young people involved in the drama deal with it. Protagonist Ilham, a Dutch-Moroccan girl with a rather hesitant character, is nicely drawn: her internal struggle of how to handle the matter (the corpse in the trunk) gets a lot of attention. Unfortunately, all other characters are made of cardboard and respond to all common clichés: Ilham's girlfriend is an unscrupulous slut, their Moroccan friend a charismatic thief, and all Moroccan boys and men (both in Morocco and in the Netherlands) are constantly horny. The way the plot is sketched is also hardly credible.
It seems to me that Wieringa has written this exciting but superficial booklet in a haste and has hardly thought through both the composition and the drawing of the characters. So despite the stylistic swirl, to me this was worth only 2 stars.
May 19, 2019
This novella is a relentless, compulsive, driven, and desperate story of two young women whose good intentions lead them to make ever more terrible choices. The way I experienced reading this novel reminded me of reading "Of Mice and Men"...it's a claustrophobic reading experience, where you know from the first few sentences the story is going to end badly, but you keep reading because the story and the situation feel true and important.
Wieringa brings alive the way his characters, second-generation women of dual Dutch and Moroccan citizenship, find themselves feeling culturally stateless, even though they both have two passports. They feel unwelcome in the Netherlands, the country where they were born. And yet when they travel to Morocco, the people immediately sense their foreignness and treat them as outsiders. The women are unprepared for the culture shock. They have naively believed that they would fit in. They're unable to take care of themselves. They are appalled by the economic disparity between the country they just left and the country they have traveled to. Their desire to belong leads them to make a disastrous series of decisions.
One reason I wanted to read The Death of Murat Idrissi was to see how a Dutch white male author approaches a story about two young Dutch women of Moroccan descent. He pulls it off masterfully. Wieringa's story is utterly sensitive to the experience of recent immigrants. A single, subtle paragraph is all Wieringa needs to establish how much harder these young women's lives became as Arab Muslim children growing up in the Netherlands after 9/11. Indeed, the women's dual citizenship, and their conflicting sense of self, play a key role, a true role I think, in making Wieringa's story so plausible and so affecting.
Wieringa brings alive the way his characters, second-generation women of dual Dutch and Moroccan citizenship, find themselves feeling culturally stateless, even though they both have two passports. They feel unwelcome in the Netherlands, the country where they were born. And yet when they travel to Morocco, the people immediately sense their foreignness and treat them as outsiders. The women are unprepared for the culture shock. They have naively believed that they would fit in. They're unable to take care of themselves. They are appalled by the economic disparity between the country they just left and the country they have traveled to. Their desire to belong leads them to make a disastrous series of decisions.
One reason I wanted to read The Death of Murat Idrissi was to see how a Dutch white male author approaches a story about two young Dutch women of Moroccan descent. He pulls it off masterfully. Wieringa's story is utterly sensitive to the experience of recent immigrants. A single, subtle paragraph is all Wieringa needs to establish how much harder these young women's lives became as Arab Muslim children growing up in the Netherlands after 9/11. Indeed, the women's dual citizenship, and their conflicting sense of self, play a key role, a true role I think, in making Wieringa's story so plausible and so affecting.
April 20, 2017
Prima boek van Tommy Wieringa. Indrukwekkend hoe hij de sfeer van onzekerheid en de daarop volgende wanhoop weergeeft. Wat mij betreft mag er veel meer geschreven worden vanuit de invalshoek van een in Nederland opgegroeide persoon, die op bezoek gaat naar het thuisland van de ouders en daar merkt dat alles anders loopt dan verwacht kon worden. Tommy Wieringa lijkt hoe langer hoe beter te schrijven. Prachtig onheilspellend verhaal. Aanrader!
January 19, 2019
4.5★s
“Thouraya’s hair was blowing wildly in the wind. They smoked one cigarette after the other, in silence. Ilham admired her, her independence and her fearlessness – she took what was coming to her, she was bellicose, in everything, including her desires. Thouraya – and this was what she admired most – had tamed the beast of shame.”
The Death of Murat Idrissi is a novel by prize-winning Dutch author, Tommy Wieringa. It is flawlessly translated from Dutch by Sam Garrett. Ilham Assouline and her friend, Thouraya are on the ferry to Spain, headed back home to Rotterdam from their impulsive, and rather ill-fated Moroccan summer vacation. There on deck with them are three young men: Saleh, whose company became welcome when they ran into difficulties, and his two friends. Ilham is uneasy, because she’s been talked into doing something against her better judgement.
When they dock at Algeciras, a quick check of the car’s trunk reveals things have gone dreadfully wrong. And now the two young women, of Moroccan immigrant parents, but raised in the Netherlands, are on their own with very little money, not enough petrol to get home, and the remains of Murat Idrissi. Is how they react a product of their upbringing or their environment? Or both? When does fear and the need for self-preservation overwhelm the respect and responsibility a person has been taught? Are eroded values contagious?
Wieringa has a talent for evocative prose: “He possessed no firm core, only other people’s melodies, to which he danced in step. Her irritation had vanished; now there was only a harmless sort of contempt. She was proud of her own insight into human character.” Dark and powerful, this is a thought-provoking read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Scribe Publishing.
“Thouraya’s hair was blowing wildly in the wind. They smoked one cigarette after the other, in silence. Ilham admired her, her independence and her fearlessness – she took what was coming to her, she was bellicose, in everything, including her desires. Thouraya – and this was what she admired most – had tamed the beast of shame.”
The Death of Murat Idrissi is a novel by prize-winning Dutch author, Tommy Wieringa. It is flawlessly translated from Dutch by Sam Garrett. Ilham Assouline and her friend, Thouraya are on the ferry to Spain, headed back home to Rotterdam from their impulsive, and rather ill-fated Moroccan summer vacation. There on deck with them are three young men: Saleh, whose company became welcome when they ran into difficulties, and his two friends. Ilham is uneasy, because she’s been talked into doing something against her better judgement.
When they dock at Algeciras, a quick check of the car’s trunk reveals things have gone dreadfully wrong. And now the two young women, of Moroccan immigrant parents, but raised in the Netherlands, are on their own with very little money, not enough petrol to get home, and the remains of Murat Idrissi. Is how they react a product of their upbringing or their environment? Or both? When does fear and the need for self-preservation overwhelm the respect and responsibility a person has been taught? Are eroded values contagious?
Wieringa has a talent for evocative prose: “He possessed no firm core, only other people’s melodies, to which he danced in step. Her irritation had vanished; now there was only a harmless sort of contempt. She was proud of her own insight into human character.” Dark and powerful, this is a thought-provoking read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Scribe Publishing.
April 17, 2023
This book is a wonderful conversation starter, and also an exercise in restraint, perhaps too much so.
At just 112 pages, it takes on a number of huge topics. The migrant crisis. Borders in Europe. Second and third generation immigrants, their assimilation into a European culture. The limits of that assimilation, the limits of acceptance, the fetishization of whiteness, the limits of empathy. It’s all organized around a central image, a dead teenager in the back of a car, asphyxiated during the ferry crossing from Morrocco to Spain. He was unwillingly taken on board by Ilham and Thouraya, two Dutch girls of Moroccan origin on holiday, and an unscrupulous human trafficker.
The two girls are left with the body to dispose of, and as they drive through rural, sunbaked Spain Ilham in particular grapples with her thoughts and feelings around the dead boy, and her understanding of her own place as almost-Dutch-but-not-quite.
And the book is woven through with mythic-style landscape descriptions of the Mediterranean, the rocks, the sky, the sunbaked earth, which serve to remind the reader of the many, many stories of mythical journeys through these landscapes, and the waves upon waves of human movement.
It’s extremely skillfully done. Unusually for me, I thought it wasn’t long enough. There is so much story here and although Ilham is reasonably well developed, other characters are largely drawn in broad strokes. Still, in a way it’s like a tiny pill, easily ingested, capable of setting off all kinds of reactions. And it sounds like the longer These Are the Names by the same author could easily be read as a companion piece.
At just 112 pages, it takes on a number of huge topics. The migrant crisis. Borders in Europe. Second and third generation immigrants, their assimilation into a European culture. The limits of that assimilation, the limits of acceptance, the fetishization of whiteness, the limits of empathy. It’s all organized around a central image, a dead teenager in the back of a car, asphyxiated during the ferry crossing from Morrocco to Spain. He was unwillingly taken on board by Ilham and Thouraya, two Dutch girls of Moroccan origin on holiday, and an unscrupulous human trafficker.
The two girls are left with the body to dispose of, and as they drive through rural, sunbaked Spain Ilham in particular grapples with her thoughts and feelings around the dead boy, and her understanding of her own place as almost-Dutch-but-not-quite.
And the book is woven through with mythic-style landscape descriptions of the Mediterranean, the rocks, the sky, the sunbaked earth, which serve to remind the reader of the many, many stories of mythical journeys through these landscapes, and the waves upon waves of human movement.
It’s extremely skillfully done. Unusually for me, I thought it wasn’t long enough. There is so much story here and although Ilham is reasonably well developed, other characters are largely drawn in broad strokes. Still, in a way it’s like a tiny pill, easily ingested, capable of setting off all kinds of reactions. And it sounds like the longer These Are the Names by the same author could easily be read as a companion piece.
April 1, 2017
Een goed kort verhaal van Wieringa met een belangrijk actueel onderwerp, al denk ik dat het boek best wat langer had mogen zijn.
Het verhaal gaat niet alleen over de zoektocht van immigranten naar een goede toekomst in Europa, maar ook over de zoektocht van twee Nederlandse-Marokkaanse meisjes naar hun identiteit. De focus ligt vooral op de meisjes, Murat is meer het lijdend voorwerp (no pun intended) en speelt niet echt een grote rol in het boek.
Dat is jammer: vanwege de titel en het eerste hoofdstuk had ik verwacht dat Wieringa wat dieper op Murat en de illegale immigranten zou ingaan. Juist deze mensen verdienen een stem en een verhaal, maar omdat Wieringa Murat niet uitwerkt, wordt hij nooit meer dan een wanhopige immigrant. De meisjes zelf vond ik oké beschreven, al bevredigde het einde van dit boek mij niet echt.
Verder is Wieringa's schrijfstijl prettig en is het verhaal heel toegankelijk geschreven, dus je hebt het zo uit.
Een goed kort boek dus, maar door zijn lengte mist het diepgang en een echte boodschap. 3 sterren.
Het verhaal gaat niet alleen over de zoektocht van immigranten naar een goede toekomst in Europa, maar ook over de zoektocht van twee Nederlandse-Marokkaanse meisjes naar hun identiteit. De focus ligt vooral op de meisjes, Murat is meer het lijdend voorwerp (no pun intended) en speelt niet echt een grote rol in het boek.
Dat is jammer: vanwege de titel en het eerste hoofdstuk had ik verwacht dat Wieringa wat dieper op Murat en de illegale immigranten zou ingaan. Juist deze mensen verdienen een stem en een verhaal, maar omdat Wieringa Murat niet uitwerkt, wordt hij nooit meer dan een wanhopige immigrant. De meisjes zelf vond ik oké beschreven, al bevredigde het einde van dit boek mij niet echt.
Verder is Wieringa's schrijfstijl prettig en is het verhaal heel toegankelijk geschreven, dus je hebt het zo uit.
Een goed kort boek dus, maar door zijn lengte mist het diepgang en een echte boodschap. 3 sterren.
April 19, 2019
Brevissima storia di due ragazze olandesi di origine marocchina che durante una vacanza in Marocco accettano di portare in Europa, nascosto nel bagagliaio della loro auto un giovane marocchino. Come si capisce già dal titolo, il ragazzo non sopravvivrà alla traversata. Il romanzo ci racconta il tormento delle due donne davanti alla situazione in cui si sono messe, ma anche le difficoltà di una loro vita in cui non si sentono né olandesi né marocchine, fuori posto in ogni luogo e che lottano con le unghie e coi denti per costruirsi una loro identità.
Straziante, ma superconsigliato.
Straziante, ma superconsigliato.
February 2, 2023
Klein boekje over een grote geschiedenis. Het drama van een vluchteling die zijn geluk in Europa wil beproeven, maar de gevaarlijke reis niet overleeft. Dat schrijnende verhaal verdient een sterker uitgewerkt boek dan dit.
December 3, 2019
There is an amazingly well-written prologue. And then there is basically the dead body of a boy and two women wondering how to get rid of it. And .... Well, thats basically it. The dead body might be a symbol of guilt of migrants who left the country or something but if that is case it loses its relevance story struggles to find its feet.
April 3, 2019
It’s safe to say without spoiling the plot that Tommy Wieringa’s very short novel The Death of Murat Idrissi, translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett, is built around a striking image of a dead boy. It’s one that I will probably remember for some time. Besides that and the fine prologue, however, I found this a rather insubstantial novel/la that in my humble opinion has similar problems as Hubert Mingarelli’s Four Soldiers, which I briefly reviewed yesterday: somewhat two-dimensional characters and an underdeveloped plot (and I’m a fan of short novels). Wieringa also tends toward using a lot of em dashes and semicolons, which to me felt a little too forced.
Perhaps my negative feelings stem from the fact that Mathias Énard’s Street of Thieves, my favorite novel of his, offers a fascinating portrait of the relations between Morocco and Europe. The underworld, the sexual frustration of men, Islam, and the astounding ending of that novel… Whereas here I feel there’s not much to take away with me after finishing.
I might come across as quite pessimistic in terms of this year’s MBI longlist, but I’ve read several from the list (which I haven’t reviewed or even marked yet on Goodreads), and fortunately know that there are books like Can Xue’s Love in the New Millennium, which I’m currently reading in awe!
Perhaps my negative feelings stem from the fact that Mathias Énard’s Street of Thieves, my favorite novel of his, offers a fascinating portrait of the relations between Morocco and Europe. The underworld, the sexual frustration of men, Islam, and the astounding ending of that novel… Whereas here I feel there’s not much to take away with me after finishing.
I might come across as quite pessimistic in terms of this year’s MBI longlist, but I’ve read several from the list (which I haven’t reviewed or even marked yet on Goodreads), and fortunately know that there are books like Can Xue’s Love in the New Millennium, which I’m currently reading in awe!
May 14, 2018
Prachtig geschreven novelle. Wieringa is een uitstekende waarnemer en weet wat hij gezien heeft vaak briljant onder woorden te brengen:
“... een strand buiten de stad. Er waren meisjes in bikini, er hingen schooiende jongens rond in shorts, benig als schaduwen. Ilham had met ze te doen, met hun hondse lijden; met haar medelijden kwam verachting mee.”
Zou vijf sterren hebben gegeven als er niet wat schoonheidsfoutjes waren: het hele eerste stukje is me te pompeus en cerebraal en voegt eigenlijk niks aan het verhaal toe. Aan het eind komt de auteur nog eens met een vergelijkbare overbodige beschrijving. Verder schrijft hij dat Murat zichzelf in de kofferbak vacuüm ademt. Dat kan niet, hij ademt immers ook weer uit. En net als de veel slechtere mooischrijver Jesus Carrasco laat Wieringa de zon in Spanje loodrecht aan de hemel staan en een perfect ronde boomschaduw werpen. Dat kan alleen in de tropen.
Maar dat zijn kleinigheden in een prachtig verteld verhaal. Absolute aanrader!
“... een strand buiten de stad. Er waren meisjes in bikini, er hingen schooiende jongens rond in shorts, benig als schaduwen. Ilham had met ze te doen, met hun hondse lijden; met haar medelijden kwam verachting mee.”
Zou vijf sterren hebben gegeven als er niet wat schoonheidsfoutjes waren: het hele eerste stukje is me te pompeus en cerebraal en voegt eigenlijk niks aan het verhaal toe. Aan het eind komt de auteur nog eens met een vergelijkbare overbodige beschrijving. Verder schrijft hij dat Murat zichzelf in de kofferbak vacuüm ademt. Dat kan niet, hij ademt immers ook weer uit. En net als de veel slechtere mooischrijver Jesus Carrasco laat Wieringa de zon in Spanje loodrecht aan de hemel staan en een perfect ronde boomschaduw werpen. Dat kan alleen in de tropen.
Maar dat zijn kleinigheden in een prachtig verteld verhaal. Absolute aanrader!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 2, 2018
"Un grido che nessuno sente non si è mai levato."
La morte di Murat Idrissi è un libro piccino ma che contiene una storia ricca di spunti di riflessione interessanti e molto attuali. Protagoniste del romanzo sono due amiche olandesi, Ilham e Thouraya. Le due ragazze hanno origini marocchine si trovano sul traghetto che da Tangeri le riporterà a casa. Nascosto nel bagagliaio della loro macchina c'è il giovane Murat, che cerca di fuggire dalla sua terra per arrivare clandestinamente in Europa. Quando il traghetto attracca, le due ragazze scoprono inorridite che Murat non è sopravvissuto al viaggio.
Impaurite, terrorizzate e senza amici, Ilham e Thouraya ripartono e iniziano ad attraversare l'entroterra spagnolo. Tutto questo mentre il corpo di Murat è ancora lì. Le due ragazze cercano il coraggio e il modo di disfarsi del corpo, ma non ci riescono. La storia di Murat sarebbe potuta essere la loro; se le loro famiglie non fossero fuggite dalla miseria tanti anni prima, probabilmente adesso anche loro si troverebbero nella stessa situazione del giovane senza vita che si trova nel loro bagagliaio.
Il nuovo romanzo di Tommy Wieringa si concentra su un tema quanto mai attuale. La storia di Murat Idrissi è la stessa storia che si svolge giorno dopo giorno in Europa. E' la storia delle migliaia di immigrati che tentano in tutti i modi di sfuggire alla povertà, alla miseria e ad una vita di stenti. E' la storia di uomini, donne e bambini che tentano di arrivare in Europa anche a rischio della loro vita.
Lo stile dell'autore è lineare e quasi asciutto, ma riesce ad essere molto evocativo e colpisce dritto al cuore il lettore. Il romanzo è molto breve, ma in poche pagine Wieringa riesce a tratteggiare il ritratto di due giovani donne in bilico tra due culture. Olandesi di nascita ma marocchine di origine, costantemente divise tra due culture che non le accettano interamente. Saranno sempre troppo marocchine per essere considerate olandesi e allo stesso tempo avranno una cultura troppo occidentale per sentirsi a casa in Marocco.
Il romanzo prevede due livelli di lettura: quello di Ilham e Thouraya e quello di Murat. La storia di Murat, anche se potrebbe sembrare svilupparsi e terminare in poche pagine, in realtà nasconde una chiave di lettura molto più profonda. Perchè noi vediamo dei giovani Murat morire ogni giorno, non passa settimana in cui non sentiamo di stragi di migranti. Murat muore nel tentativo di scappare alla miseria, come muoiono le migliaia di giovani che cercano salvezza in Europa ma che non riescono a farcela.
Il romanzo di Wieringa è davvero bellissimo, ricco di spunti quanto mai attuali. E' una storia che, pur raccontando di personaggi fittizi, è vera, è reale. E' una storia a cui assistiamo tutti i giorni ma a cui, la maggior parte di noi almeno, non presta la dovuta attenzione.
La morte di Murat Idrissi è un libro piccino ma che contiene una storia ricca di spunti di riflessione interessanti e molto attuali. Protagoniste del romanzo sono due amiche olandesi, Ilham e Thouraya. Le due ragazze hanno origini marocchine si trovano sul traghetto che da Tangeri le riporterà a casa. Nascosto nel bagagliaio della loro macchina c'è il giovane Murat, che cerca di fuggire dalla sua terra per arrivare clandestinamente in Europa. Quando il traghetto attracca, le due ragazze scoprono inorridite che Murat non è sopravvissuto al viaggio.
Impaurite, terrorizzate e senza amici, Ilham e Thouraya ripartono e iniziano ad attraversare l'entroterra spagnolo. Tutto questo mentre il corpo di Murat è ancora lì. Le due ragazze cercano il coraggio e il modo di disfarsi del corpo, ma non ci riescono. La storia di Murat sarebbe potuta essere la loro; se le loro famiglie non fossero fuggite dalla miseria tanti anni prima, probabilmente adesso anche loro si troverebbero nella stessa situazione del giovane senza vita che si trova nel loro bagagliaio.
Il nuovo romanzo di Tommy Wieringa si concentra su un tema quanto mai attuale. La storia di Murat Idrissi è la stessa storia che si svolge giorno dopo giorno in Europa. E' la storia delle migliaia di immigrati che tentano in tutti i modi di sfuggire alla povertà, alla miseria e ad una vita di stenti. E' la storia di uomini, donne e bambini che tentano di arrivare in Europa anche a rischio della loro vita.
Lo stile dell'autore è lineare e quasi asciutto, ma riesce ad essere molto evocativo e colpisce dritto al cuore il lettore. Il romanzo è molto breve, ma in poche pagine Wieringa riesce a tratteggiare il ritratto di due giovani donne in bilico tra due culture. Olandesi di nascita ma marocchine di origine, costantemente divise tra due culture che non le accettano interamente. Saranno sempre troppo marocchine per essere considerate olandesi e allo stesso tempo avranno una cultura troppo occidentale per sentirsi a casa in Marocco.
Il romanzo prevede due livelli di lettura: quello di Ilham e Thouraya e quello di Murat. La storia di Murat, anche se potrebbe sembrare svilupparsi e terminare in poche pagine, in realtà nasconde una chiave di lettura molto più profonda. Perchè noi vediamo dei giovani Murat morire ogni giorno, non passa settimana in cui non sentiamo di stragi di migranti. Murat muore nel tentativo di scappare alla miseria, come muoiono le migliaia di giovani che cercano salvezza in Europa ma che non riescono a farcela.
Il romanzo di Wieringa è davvero bellissimo, ricco di spunti quanto mai attuali. E' una storia che, pur raccontando di personaggi fittizi, è vera, è reale. E' una storia a cui assistiamo tutti i giorni ma a cui, la maggior parte di noi almeno, non presta la dovuta attenzione.
April 19, 2019
Thank you @scribepub for sending me a copy of The Death of Murat Idrissi to review in my quest to read the Man Booker International long-list! At only 100 pages, this one is more novella than novel, but the imagery is very striking, like the cover, and a pertinent story.
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The translation from the Dutch by Sam Garrett was well done I thought, I didn’t really come across any awkward passages and I think that’s probably because Tommy Wieringa employs very straight-forward, no-nonsense language which is a lot easier to translate than flowery prose!
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Our protagonists are two Dutch girls who decide to head to Morocco, where their parents were born, for a reason that’s not really clear but also not the point of the story. While there, they cross paths with Saleh, a guy who organises illegal crossings for Moroccans hoping to escape poverty and unemployment by heading to Spain. In a time where there’s seemingly never-ending, horrific stories of refugees drowning in attempts to cross the ocean in dinghies and the like, this feels like an important book to remind us of the desperation these people feel.
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From the title it’s easy to see how the operation goes, as Thouraya and Ilham agree to help Murat by smuggling him across in the tyre well of their car. As much as I did enjoy the writing and the topic (disturbing as the story is), there is the question of Own Voices. I appreciate that authors are trying to incorporate more diversity into their work, but Wieringa doesn’t have any first-hand experience being a second-generation Moroccan girl from the Netherlands.
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I’m not saying Wieringa’s narration is bad, indeed it’s good and I’m glad he’s drawing our attention to the lengths people are willing to go in a ‘grass is always greener’ scenario, but I’m sure you see the point!
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The translation from the Dutch by Sam Garrett was well done I thought, I didn’t really come across any awkward passages and I think that’s probably because Tommy Wieringa employs very straight-forward, no-nonsense language which is a lot easier to translate than flowery prose!
.
Our protagonists are two Dutch girls who decide to head to Morocco, where their parents were born, for a reason that’s not really clear but also not the point of the story. While there, they cross paths with Saleh, a guy who organises illegal crossings for Moroccans hoping to escape poverty and unemployment by heading to Spain. In a time where there’s seemingly never-ending, horrific stories of refugees drowning in attempts to cross the ocean in dinghies and the like, this feels like an important book to remind us of the desperation these people feel.
.
From the title it’s easy to see how the operation goes, as Thouraya and Ilham agree to help Murat by smuggling him across in the tyre well of their car. As much as I did enjoy the writing and the topic (disturbing as the story is), there is the question of Own Voices. I appreciate that authors are trying to incorporate more diversity into their work, but Wieringa doesn’t have any first-hand experience being a second-generation Moroccan girl from the Netherlands.
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I’m not saying Wieringa’s narration is bad, indeed it’s good and I’m glad he’s drawing our attention to the lengths people are willing to go in a ‘grass is always greener’ scenario, but I’m sure you see the point!
January 17, 2018
Er zit veel in dit boekje dat tot nadenken stemt. Op 128 pagina's slaagt Wieringa erin thema's aan te snijden die variëren van migratie tot integratie, van verbondenheid tot ontworteling... Nu gelezen voor het verhaal (dat goed is), maar eigenlijk zou het de moeite lonen het nog eens te herlezen en langer stil te staan bij al het voer voor nadenken dat wordt aangereikt.
November 20, 2020
Terrible book from a person who seems overconfident about how women feel. The descriptions are a series of cliches. It failed to evoke any sentiment in me.
April 25, 2024
? Ik was op zoek naar een aardig boekje met een woord dat verwijst naar de dood in de titel omdat ik nog een boekje wilde lezen deze maand voor de boekenwurm challenge. En ja, dit is al mijn 4e boek van deze schrijver, dus ik begin een beetje een fan te worden van zijn schrijfstijl ;-)
🤔ik raakte geïnteresseerd toen ik las hoe de auteur op dit onderwerp kwam ('bij een rechtszaak gaan zitten') en daar dus een prequel op heeft gemaakt. Tja, ik heb mij weer vermaakt door zijn schrijfstijl, beeldspraak, metaforen, etc.
=> Misschien moet ik dit jaar toch ook maar Nirwana gaan lezen, maar ik heb nog zoveel andere dikke boeken dit jaar te lezen ;-)
Dit boekje is overigens juist niet dik en zeker boeiend om tussendoor te lezen dus!
MW24/4/20
🤔ik raakte geïnteresseerd toen ik las hoe de auteur op dit onderwerp kwam ('bij een rechtszaak gaan zitten') en daar dus een prequel op heeft gemaakt. Tja, ik heb mij weer vermaakt door zijn schrijfstijl, beeldspraak, metaforen, etc.
=> Misschien moet ik dit jaar toch ook maar Nirwana gaan lezen, maar ik heb nog zoveel andere dikke boeken dit jaar te lezen ;-)
Dit boekje is overigens juist niet dik en zeker boeiend om tussendoor te lezen dus!
MW24/4/20
August 26, 2017
Een spannend beklijvend boek met korte zinnen, mooie vertelstijl en een pakkend verhaal.
Twee Ndl- Marokkaanse grietjes laten zich overtuigen om Murat Idrissi de grens over te smokkelen met hun huurauto. Murat sterft echter van verstikking in de koffer van de auto.
Een reis door Spanje volgt. Verraad, paniek en angst aan hun zijde. En de allesoverheersende geur van een rottend lijk.
Een boek om van te huilen. Sprakeloos.... Triestig!
Twee Ndl- Marokkaanse grietjes laten zich overtuigen om Murat Idrissi de grens over te smokkelen met hun huurauto. Murat sterft echter van verstikking in de koffer van de auto.
Een reis door Spanje volgt. Verraad, paniek en angst aan hun zijde. En de allesoverheersende geur van een rottend lijk.
Een boek om van te huilen. Sprakeloos.... Triestig!
Read
March 19, 2024“Só tive pena de ser tão curto. Senti que começamos a história muito tarde e acabamos muito cedo, não dando muito espaço para que nos liguemos emocionalmente às duas raparigas. Gostava de ter tido mais tempo para as conhecer melhor e para estar mais investida no momento em que tomam a decisão, bem como quando têm de arcar com o que acontece. Ainda assim, é uma leitura muito interessante, bastante crua e direta, que certamente vos vai entreter durante um par de horas.”
Review completa em: https://ritadanova.blogs.sapo.pt/the-....
Review completa em: https://ritadanova.blogs.sapo.pt/the-....
March 13, 2019
A very short, but griping story. Two women with Maroccon roots, but Dutch by nationality smuggle someone illegaly into Europe. But things go completely wrong.
The migration theme i.e. escaping your destiny, fleeing your country, not belonging anywhere is the major theme in this novel.
Some people escape their fate and got to Europe because their parents made the right choice. When going back to their roots, they feel like not belonging there. Neither do they belong in their countries of birth where they are perceived as immigrants.
And what right do they have to deny others a live in the ‘promised land’?
When on a trip in their country of birth, they have a problem. From then on things go wrong...
During the trip, we learn more on the hopes, thoughts and expectations of the MC and on the smuggling business.
An excellent read. The book is fast paced, but focuses on thoughts and ideas.
It is a book to reflect upon and read again some day.
One of the most important characteristics of Wieringa’s style, is his power to describe people, situations and landscapes with a minimum amount of words. Quite impressive.
Nominated for the Mann Booker international Prize 2019 longlist
The migration theme i.e. escaping your destiny, fleeing your country, not belonging anywhere is the major theme in this novel.
Some people escape their fate and got to Europe because their parents made the right choice. When going back to their roots, they feel like not belonging there. Neither do they belong in their countries of birth where they are perceived as immigrants.
And what right do they have to deny others a live in the ‘promised land’?
When on a trip in their country of birth, they have a problem. From then on things go wrong...
During the trip, we learn more on the hopes, thoughts and expectations of the MC and on the smuggling business.
An excellent read. The book is fast paced, but focuses on thoughts and ideas.
It is a book to reflect upon and read again some day.
One of the most important characteristics of Wieringa’s style, is his power to describe people, situations and landscapes with a minimum amount of words. Quite impressive.
Nominated for the Mann Booker international Prize 2019 longlist
July 5, 2017
Ik vond het verhaal mooi, maar het boek was te kort voor een verhaal als dit. Natuurlijk gaat er veel fout, vooral voor Murat - dat is geen eens een spoiler meer. Maar het wordt ongeloofwaardig als de twee dames zich nog op een verbazingwekkende manier uit hun situatie weten te redden. Het verhaal leek niet af door dit onwaarschijnlijke geluk en misschien is dat wel een vergelijking die Wieringa probeert te maken: het verhaal van de vluchtelingenproblematiek is nooit af, niet in de komende jaren in ieder geval. Deze tegenslagen zullen altijd langs blijven komen en waarschijnlijk nooit het nieuws halen, op een enkeling na. En waarschijnlijk ben ik niet de enige die gefrustreerd is door een abrupt einde als dit, maar bevat de Afrikaanse kust talloze moeders met deze frustratie en dit verlies van hoop. Waar durf ik me dan druk om te maken? Het blijft pijnlijk, en misschien is dat ook wel nodig..
February 4, 2020
Another reminder of the perils people face in trying to reach a country with supposedly better opportunities.
The book has a great prologue which to me was probably the highlight.
The two young women in the story show all the smarts of preschooler. They travel on a whim to Morocco with little money and one with her sisters passport, they met up with a local lad who convinces them to help another local lad to hide in the boot of their car as they get back into Europe. They make even more stupid decisions and I was glad the book closed after only 100 pages. It was very well written though.
The book has a great prologue which to me was probably the highlight.
The two young women in the story show all the smarts of preschooler. They travel on a whim to Morocco with little money and one with her sisters passport, they met up with a local lad who convinces them to help another local lad to hide in the boot of their car as they get back into Europe. They make even more stupid decisions and I was glad the book closed after only 100 pages. It was very well written though.
October 29, 2019
Het begin was een beetje vreemd en viel nogal uit de toon met de rest van het verhaal, en het einde was ook niet helemaal wat ik had gewild, maar toch vond ik dit een erg goed boek(je).
Ik ben nu zeker benieuwd naar de andere boeken van Tommy Wieringa, met name naar ‘Dit zijn de namen’.
Ik ben nu zeker benieuwd naar de andere boeken van Tommy Wieringa, met name naar ‘Dit zijn de namen’.
April 20, 2024
Nel profondo del tempo. Il respiro calmo di milioni di anni. Un mare si prosciuga, evapora sotto il sole rovente; il bacino diventa un deserto di sale. Sol Invictus. Il caldo infuocato di un deserto profondo - la pioggia evapora prima ancora di toccare terra, una sottile nebbia di minerali scende sulla superficie terrestre.
E poi, alla fine di quell'era silenziosa, immobile, non c'è nessuno a contemplare il miracolo della frattura tettonica nella massa terrestre, il varco fra l'Oceano Atlantico e quello che diventerà il Mar Mediterraneo. Schiumando e ribollendo l'acqua erompe nel varco e si getta nel deserto di sale sottostante
Questo è l'epico incipit di La morte di Murat Idrissi. Si parte dalla natura, dal sole e dal mare, dal deserto. La natura è, suo malgrado, scenario e spettatore del dramma che coinvolgerà il giovane Murat che cerca di attraversare il Mediterraneo da clandestino chiuso nel bagaglio dell'auto di due ragazze, olandesi di seconda generazione, ma marocchine di origine, Ilham e Thouraya. Così la tragedia di Murat si salda sul dramma quotidiano delle ragazze fatto di tentativi di integrazione in Olanda di cui sono cittadine a tutti gli effetti, ma tuttavia riconosciute come estranee, e di emancipazione dal destino di mogli e madri designato per loro dalle famiglie.
Il libro inizia in un deserto, quello del Marocco, e termina nel brulle regioni centrali della Spagna, un altro deserto, arido come i sentimenti dei trafficanti di uomini, come le emozioni delle ragazze (soprattutto Thouraya) che, loro malgrado, si sono trovate coinvolte in questa storia teribile. Un libro ricco di tematiche estremamente attuali e dolorose.
E poi, alla fine di quell'era silenziosa, immobile, non c'è nessuno a contemplare il miracolo della frattura tettonica nella massa terrestre, il varco fra l'Oceano Atlantico e quello che diventerà il Mar Mediterraneo. Schiumando e ribollendo l'acqua erompe nel varco e si getta nel deserto di sale sottostante
Questo è l'epico incipit di La morte di Murat Idrissi. Si parte dalla natura, dal sole e dal mare, dal deserto. La natura è, suo malgrado, scenario e spettatore del dramma che coinvolgerà il giovane Murat che cerca di attraversare il Mediterraneo da clandestino chiuso nel bagaglio dell'auto di due ragazze, olandesi di seconda generazione, ma marocchine di origine, Ilham e Thouraya. Così la tragedia di Murat si salda sul dramma quotidiano delle ragazze fatto di tentativi di integrazione in Olanda di cui sono cittadine a tutti gli effetti, ma tuttavia riconosciute come estranee, e di emancipazione dal destino di mogli e madri designato per loro dalle famiglie.
Il libro inizia in un deserto, quello del Marocco, e termina nel brulle regioni centrali della Spagna, un altro deserto, arido come i sentimenti dei trafficanti di uomini, come le emozioni delle ragazze (soprattutto Thouraya) che, loro malgrado, si sono trovate coinvolte in questa storia teribile. Un libro ricco di tematiche estremamente attuali e dolorose.
November 3, 2020
*** 4 ***
May 4, 2018
*1,5
Wieringa switcht halverwege het boek van tegenwoordige tijd naar verleden tijd - en wisselt later nog een paar keer - terwijl het verhaal op dezelfde plek verder gaat. Waarom in godsnaam? Daarnaast zijn de dialogen erg flets en ongeloofwaardig, en werd ik af en toe moe van de 'mooischrijverij', waar ik doorgaans van houd. Maar je moet wel iets zeggen met die woorden, en niet alleen mooi staan te wezen.
Jeroen Vullings' positieve recensie in Vrij Nederland maakte me nieuwsgierig, maar ik moet me toch bij Thomas de Veen van NRC Handelsblad en Arie Storm van Het Parool aansluiten. Om ze maar erg vrij te parafraseren: het is best wel een kutboek.
Wieringa switcht halverwege het boek van tegenwoordige tijd naar verleden tijd - en wisselt later nog een paar keer - terwijl het verhaal op dezelfde plek verder gaat. Waarom in godsnaam? Daarnaast zijn de dialogen erg flets en ongeloofwaardig, en werd ik af en toe moe van de 'mooischrijverij', waar ik doorgaans van houd. Maar je moet wel iets zeggen met die woorden, en niet alleen mooi staan te wezen.
Jeroen Vullings' positieve recensie in Vrij Nederland maakte me nieuwsgierig, maar ik moet me toch bij Thomas de Veen van NRC Handelsblad en Arie Storm van Het Parool aansluiten. Om ze maar erg vrij te parafraseren: het is best wel een kutboek.
July 23, 2019
A very small book, a short story essentially that contains much more than what its size justifies. I do not know if I should call it a story of immigration, guilty secrets or anything else but surely the writer narrates it in a way that keeps the reader's interest to the end and makes him sympathise with its protagonists. A very good book.
Ένα πολύ μικρό βιβλίο, ένα διήγημα ουσιαστικά, που περιέχει πολλά περισσότερα από όσα δικαιολογεί το μέγεθος του. Δεν ξέρω αν πρέπει να το χαρακτηρίσω μία ιστορία μετανάστευσης, ένοχων μυστικών ή οτιδήποτε άλλο αλλά σίγουρα ο συγγραφέας την αφηγείται με ένα τρόπο που κρατά το ενδιαφέρον του αναγνώστη μέχρι το τέλος και τον κάνει να συμπάσχει με τους πρωταγωνιστές της. Ένα πάρα πολύ καλό βιβλίο.
Ένα πολύ μικρό βιβλίο, ένα διήγημα ουσιαστικά, που περιέχει πολλά περισσότερα από όσα δικαιολογεί το μέγεθος του. Δεν ξέρω αν πρέπει να το χαρακτηρίσω μία ιστορία μετανάστευσης, ένοχων μυστικών ή οτιδήποτε άλλο αλλά σίγουρα ο συγγραφέας την αφηγείται με ένα τρόπο που κρατά το ενδιαφέρον του αναγνώστη μέχρι το τέλος και τον κάνει να συμπάσχει με τους πρωταγωνιστές της. Ένα πάρα πολύ καλό βιβλίο.
April 10, 2019
This short 100-page novella really packs a punch. I was invested in the decision-making of these two young women during their whole journey, and it's said to be based on true events. An intense read.
Two young Moroccan-Dutch women in their early 20s are on a road trip visiting Morocco, the land of their parents and forefathers. Traveling alone as a female in Morocco has to be done carefully. As both were raised in Western society and have all but dismissed their parents' cultural heritage to have an arranged marriage and to be a proper female Muslim, they aren't too aware of the negative attention their actions draw to themselves. Familiar eye contact is made with Saleh, a bad element, and once that happens, they can't shake him. But they also need him as a guide and protector, as well as their finances are starting to run low. They find themselves trapped in another bad situation when he convinces them to help a poor family in need. A death occurs and Saleh flees, leaving the women to deal with the aftermath. They have no family to call on for help and must figure out what to do with a dead body and how to get home to the Netherlands with the little money they have remaining.
Two young Moroccan-Dutch women in their early 20s are on a road trip visiting Morocco, the land of their parents and forefathers. Traveling alone as a female in Morocco has to be done carefully. As both were raised in Western society and have all but dismissed their parents' cultural heritage to have an arranged marriage and to be a proper female Muslim, they aren't too aware of the negative attention their actions draw to themselves. Familiar eye contact is made with Saleh, a bad element, and once that happens, they can't shake him. But they also need him as a guide and protector, as well as their finances are starting to run low. They find themselves trapped in another bad situation when he convinces them to help a poor family in need. A death occurs and Saleh flees, leaving the women to deal with the aftermath. They have no family to call on for help and must figure out what to do with a dead body and how to get home to the Netherlands with the little money they have remaining.
January 28, 2024
'Voor massatoerisme is Gibraltar ongeschikt, al is de Rots een bezienswaardigheid en zijn de weersomstandigheden bij Tarifa aantrekkelijk voor windsurfers.'
May 2, 2022
Libro che si legge tutto in un fiato e che trasmette sia la leggerezza sia la pesantezza dell'ultimo viaggio della vita.
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