Secret Son
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
When a young man is given the chance to rewrite his future, he doesn't realize the price he will pay for giving up his past...
Casablanca's stinking alleys are the only home that nineteen-year-old Youssef El-Mekki has ever known. Raised by his mother in a one-room home, the film stars flickering on the local cinema's screen offer the only glimmer of hope to his frustrated dreams of escape. Until, that is, the father he thought dead turns out to be very much alive.
A high profile businessman with wealth to burn, Nabil is disenchanted with his daughter and eager to take in the boy he never knew. Soon Youssef is installed in his penthouse and sampling the gold-plated luxuries enjoyed by Casablanca's elite. But as he leaves the slums of his childhood behind him, he comes up against a starkly un-glittering reality...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lalami's unpolished first novel (after story collection Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits) follows Youssef El Mekki, a 19-year-old living in the slums of Casablanca who learns that his father\x97believed to be dead\x97is alive. The news precipitates Youssef's quest to find his father, who turns out to be the rich, well-connected businessman Nabil Amrani. The two meet just as a rift has developed between Nabil and his daughter, Amal, who is studying in America. Once Nabil invites Youssef back into his life, Youssef suddenly has all the luxuries he has ever dreamed about: a new apartment in the best neighborhood and a decent job. But just as quickly, it is all taken away, and when Youssef returns to his old neighborhood\x97now the headquarters of a fringe Islamist group\x97he finds himself embroiled in a dangerous conspiracy. Unfortunately, Lalami riddles the book with uninspired descriptions and observations; Youssef and Nabril are less than distinctive; and the climax lacks impact. It all seems perfunctory.
