Culture | Post-colonial fiction
Leïla Slimani’s new novel ranges from France to Morocco
“Watch Us Dance” is a tale of rebellion and repression, love and its betrayal
Fishing village of Tifnit in Morocco.
image: alamy
Jun 8th 2023
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Watch Us Dance. By Leïla Slimani. Translated by Sam Taylor. Viking; 336 pages; $27. Faber & Faber; £16.99
Studious and shy, Aïcha leaves the mandarin and olive groves of her parents’ farm in Morocco for medical school under the “ashen skies” of eastern France. There, on the cusp of the student rebellion of 1968, she finds friendship as well as prejudice. “We don’t do this kind of hair usually,” the coiffeuse in Strasbourg says when Aïcha has her hair straightened so as to look like Françoise Hardy, a French star.
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