# The Sand Child

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/tahar-ben-jelloun/the-sand-child/9781837315420

JSON version (same data): https://www.bookquiver.com/tahar-ben-jelloun/the-sand-child/9781837315420.json

![The Sand Child](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin/tahar-ben-jelloun/the-sand-child_978-18-3731-542-0-643bcd72.jpg?v=2026-09-19%2006%3A42%3A24)

- Book: [The Sand Child](https://www.bookquiver.com/tahar-ben-jelloun/the-sand-child) ([The Sand Child.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/tahar-ben-jelloun/the-sand-child.md))
- Authors: [Tahar Ben Jelloun](https://www.bookquiver.com/tahar-ben-jelloun)
- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-18-3731-542-0
- Published: 2027-04-08
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

Hajji Ahmed has seven daughters and a constant worry; he has no legal heir. Determined to stop his greedy brothers from claiming his wealth, he decides that his eighth child will be a boy, no matter what. Thus, his final child, Mohammed Ahmed, is raised a boy with all the privileges granted exclusively to men in traditional society. Yet, as he matures, Ahmed's desire to have children marks the beginning of his sexual evolution, and as a woman named Zahra, she finally begins to explore her identity on her own terms. In haunting, surrealist prose Ben Jelloun relates the extraordinary events of Ahmed/Zahra's life through a storyteller and the listeners who have gathered in a Marrakesh market square to hear his tale. A poetic vision of colonial legacy and gender politics in 1950s Morocco, The Sand Child is the masterwork of one of the greatest North African writers of the 20 th century.