Alluring and rich, Lalla Essaydi's work plays with the representation of Islam and the Orient in the West. Her work reaches far beyond Islamic culture to invoke the Western fascination with the veil and the harem as expressed in 19th-century Orientalist painting which suggested exoticism, fantasy and mysticism were abound in Arab culture. In an act of reclamation, Essayadi re-uses this visual language - the exquisite architecture, the interior decor, the clothing - to turn both the visualisation of women and of Islam in a different direction.
With an infectious blend of humor, satire, and biting social commentary, Yassin Adnan gives readers a portrait of contemporary Morocco—and the city of Marrakech—told through the eyes of the hapless Rahhal Laâouina, a.k.a. the Squirrel. Painfully shy, not that bright, and not all that popular, Rahhal somehow imagines himself a hero. With a useless degree in ancient Arabic poetry, he finds his calling in the online world, where he discovers email, YouTube, Facebook, and the news site Hot Maroc. Enamored of the internet and the thrill of anonymity it allows, Rahhal opens the Atlas Cubs Cyber Café, where patrons mingle virtually with politicians, journalists, hackers, and trolls. However, Rahhal soon finds himself mired in the dark side of the online world—one of corruption, scandal, and deception. Longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2017, Hot Maroc is a vital portrait of the challenges Moroccans, young and old, face today. Where press freedoms are tightly controlled by government authorities, where the police spy on, intimidate, and detain citizens with impunity, and where adherence to traditional cultural icons both anchors and stifles creative production, the online world provides an alternative for the young and voiceless. In this revolutionary novel that recalls Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Dave Eggers’s The Circle, Adnan fixes his lens on young Rahhal and his contemporaries as they navigate the perilous and changing landscape of the real and virtual worlds they inhabit.
Yves Saint Laurent is a name synonymous with style, elegance, and high fashion. When he came on the scene at Dior and then started his own line, he quickly changed the way people regarded haute couture and the world of fashion itself. He revolutionized women’s evening wear when he introduced Le Smoking, a woman’s tuxedo, and made couture accessible to a younger generation. Yves Saint Laurent is Roxanne Lowit’s personal photographic history of Saint Laurent, the man and the fashion, from 1978, the year she first met him, to the last show he gave in 2002. With contributions from YSL’s muses and admirers, including Catherine Deneuve, Betty Catroux, Lucie de la Falaise, Pat Cleveland, and Valerie Steele, this reduced format hardcover represents the backstage experience at YSL’s shows as Lowit saw them herself. Whether surrounded by beautiful models or peeking at the catwalk from the wings, every moment was a magnificent photo opportunity. Lowit shares magical moments of YSL with the world—intimate, social, absorbed in fashion—and creates a unique portrait of this towering figure of postwar couture.
Le phénomène OVNI est bien présent au Maroc, ce n'est pas seulement dans les pays tels la France, les Usa, l'Italie etc.... qu'il est localisé. Au Maroc plusieurs centaines d'observations ont été rapportées et figurent dans « L'HISTOIRE DES OVNIS AU MAROC ». Le problème est sérieux, lors d'une observation en 1976, sa majesté le roi Hassan II s'en est inquiété et a demandé aux autorités américaines des informations sur le sujet. En France le dossier OVNI est également pris au sérieux, tout comme dans plusieurs pays et un service spécialisé au sein même du CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales) : le GEIPAN ( Groupe d'Études et d'informations sur les Phénomènes aérospatiaux Non Identifiés) est chargé de l'étudier et rend compte au grand public, via un site internet spécialisé, de l'avancement de ses recherches.Gérard LEBAT.
Reconnaissance au Maroc is Charles de Foucauld’s adventurous account of his Moroccan explorations. For eleven months in 1883–84, Foucauld travelled through a country then off-limits to Europeans, documenting its landscape and charting its waterways. He travelled in disguise as a Russian rabbi, Joseph Aleman, accompanied by the real rabbi Mardochée Aby Serour, and sought hospitality in the mellahs, Jewish quarters, of villages along their route. Foucauld meticulously recorded every day of his time in Morocco, and by the time his memoir was published in 1888 it had already garnered praise in France and the prestigious gold medal from the Société de Géographie de Paris. The book is more than merely a travel memoir, however: as an artefact of cultural and religious encounter, and as a scientific compendium, Reconnaissance au Maroc offers an extraordinary glimpse of the late-nineteenth century French mentality toward North Africa, as well as a cross-section of Moroccan society in the pre-colonial era. Rosemary Peters-Hill’s volume translates Foucauld’s work into English for the first time, situating Reconnaissance within the contexts of both late-nineteenth century French writing about ailleurs, other places, and Foucauld’s own journey through Morocco: the “other” place where, paradoxically, he found his true self and calling.
Adventure travel in search of a lost friend to Essaouria, a centre of counter-culture and Berber tradition in late Twentieth Century Morocco. The main character returns years later to recall the two friends' journey further south to the northern Sahara, where colonial history is ending, as events unfolded that changed their personal histories.
From fragrant, labyrinthine souks and delectable cuisine to breathtaking landscapes and welcoming people: Morocco might be a stone's throw from Spain, but it continues to inspire visions of an exotic haven. This edition brings together an eclectic selection of homes to showcase the best of Moroccan wonders, complete with exclusive, inspiring...
