Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Century of Locusts

Century of Locusts

Hamdy, Karim
Mokeddem, Malika
Rice, Laura

Paperback

Series: European Women Writers

Historical FictionLiterary Fiction

Publisher Price: $29.95

ISBN10: 0803283067
ISBN13: 9780803283060
Publisher: Bison Books
Published: May 1 2006
Pages: 288
Weight: 0.74
Height: 0.60 Width: 5.58 Depth: 8.48
Language: English
What first appears as a tiny moving shadow, no bigger than a fly, on the dazzling horizon slowly reveals itself as the grim shape of violence and death; in the destruction left behind--the mother's broken body, the hidden child, the crying infant--begins the story of wandering and loss, of exile and desolation that sounds all the sad echoes of disappearing Bedouin life. Set in the first half of the twentieth century, Malika Mokeddem's Century of Locusts combines the magic of exquisitely wrought desert landscapes, the intrigue of Bedouin tales of madmen and poets, and the personal pain of exile and isolation to evoke a way of life destroyed by the scourge of settler colonialism.

The book tells the braided tales of those left to resist: a wandering poet and his mute, stricken daughter, Yasmine; the lunatic Majnoun; and Majnoun's murderous sidekick, Hassan, who twitches and squints with malevolence, lurking along the story's shadowy borders. Rippling ever outward with allusions and echoes, the tale eventually encompasses Algeria's legendary past, its colonial injustices, and its uncertain future, even as Mokeddem's poetry and deft touch confer life and hope on the ravaged body of this desert land.

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