The Black Crescent
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A captivating historical novel set in post-war Casablanca about a young man marked by djinns who must decide where his loyalties lie as the fight for Moroccan independence erupts.
Hamou Badi is born in a village in the Anti-Atlas Mountains with the markings of the zouhry on his hands. In Morocco, the zouhry is a figure of legend, a child of both humans and djinns, capable of finding treasure, lost objects, and even water in the worst of droughts. But when young Hamou finds the body of a murdered woman, his life is forever changed.
Haunted by this unsolved murder and driven by the desire to do good in the world, Hamou leaves his village for Casablanca to become an officer of the law under the French Protectorate.
But Casablanca is not the shining beacon of modernity he was expecting. The forcible exile of Morocco’s sultan by the French sparks a nationalist uprising led by violent dissident groups, none so fearsome as the Black Crescent. Torn between his heritage and his employers, Hamou will be caught in the crossfire.
The lines between right and wrong, past and future, the old world and the new, are not as clear as the magical lines on his palms. And as the danger grows, Hamou is forced to choose between all he knows and all he loves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Johnson (The White Hare) imbues 1950s Morocco with some light magic in this robust tale about a man favored by djinns. The sultan is exiled from French Morocco, and a Moroccan nationalist group known as the Black Crescent stage killings of French citizens to wrest back control of their country. Against this backdrop, Hamou Badi discovers a dead body in the fictional village of Tiziane, and the sight inspires him to move to Casablanca to train as a police officer. There, he establishes a new life and finds a new family. As violence and rebellion rage on in Casablanca, however, he inevitably runs into members of the Black Crescent and discovers that his friends and family are also among them. Working for the French Sûreté, Hamou finds himself torn between his allegiances to his countrymen and the colonizers. Despite establishing early on that Hamou is a zouhry, a half human, half djinn creature capable of finding water sources and treasure, Johnson keeps the magic vague and only occasionally relevant to the plot. Though historical fantasy readers may be disappoint, others will be drawn in by the tense and complex political machinations. This is one to savor.
