Malika Moustadraf's impactful collection of short stories
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Loading... - Eric Robert
- 09 Mar 2022
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She published a novel and a collection of short stories from which “Blood Feast: The Complete Short Stories of Malika Moustadraf” was born.
Collected and translated into English by Alice Guthrie, an independent translator who specializes in contemporary Arabic writing, Moustadraf’s stories move through the streets of Casablanca, touching every corner of Moroccan life, from social disparity that steals dignity and leaves the suffering helpless, to tales of forced identities, and an unadulterated look at society steeped in patriarchy.
Guthrie, who has been reading and translating Moustadraf’s work since 2016, wrote that Moustadraf was a “gifted maverick writer” who grew “from strength to strength even as her health deteriorated.”
Only ever published in Morocco, Moustadraf’s work remains too powerful to be confined, her stories that are uniquely Moroccan are relatable around the world.
Since 1999, when Moustadraf self-published her first novel, her focus has remained on an “unflinching look at the worst traumas of the female experience in patriarchal society, shot through with wit, wordplay, and razor-sharp political commentary.”
The collection begins with a tale of marriage and the implication that purity is a woman’s responsibility, no matter how rich or poor.
Moustadraf’s stories are brief yet impactful and the collection moves into the poverty of a cigarette seller who is exhausted. The young man curses his parents and sister, who married a Frenchman and promised to get them immigration papers. His life is on repeat every day with hope diminishing. Read More…
