Issue #0

Bab El-Oued

Plot

Bored housewives, kept in seclusion, smuggling in Harlequin romances. Modish young men transformed into Islamic militants in beards and white robes. A baker unwittingly caught in a web of intrigue, an imam whose faith is tested by urban corruption, a lonely divorcee accused of prostitution -- all take part in Merzak Allouache's compelling novel of a society on the brink of crisis. Allouache tells the story of the people of Bab el-Oued, a poor neighborhood in contemporary Algiers. His experience as a filmmaker lends the work a cinematic quality, bringing it vibrantly and immediately to life. Bab el-Oued's memorable characters draw us into their world. Entering their lives, we come to appreciate the human costs of economic and political decline, and also to understand something of the reasons underlying the power of new and violent forms of Islamic militancy. -- Description from https://www.rienner.com (Dec. 2, 2011).