# This Blinding Absence of Light

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/tahar-ben-jelloun/this-blinding-absence-of-light/9780141022826

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- Book: [This Blinding Absence of Light](https://www.bookquiver.com/tahar-ben-jelloun/this-blinding-absence-of-light) ([This Blinding Absence of Light.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/tahar-ben-jelloun/this-blinding-absence-of-light.md))
- Authors: [Tahar Ben Jelloun](https://www.bookquiver.com/tahar-ben-jelloun)
- Publisher: Penguin
- ISBN: 978-01-4102-282-6
- Pages: 208
- Published: 2005-09-01
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

In this extraordinary non-fiction novel, based on a true story, Tahar Ben Jelloun traces the experiences of Salim who, in 1971, took part in a failed coup attempt to oust King Hassan II of Morocco. With sixty others Salim was incarcerated in a secret prison complex in the Moroccan desert: he was to remain there for nearly twenty years. In starkly eloquent, beautiful prose, Ben Jelloun relates the prisoners' experiences as they struggle to survive. The son of a witty, feckless courtier who disowns him, Salim tells stories to keep sane - from the suras of his beloved Koran to the plot of A Streetcar Named Desire. Even in the darkest, most terrible conditions, sympathy, insight, the human quest for meaning and understanding, never desert Salim. The resulting novel is a wrenching yet exquisite celebration of the human spirit and its determination to survive. 'A masterpiece' Judges of the IMPAC award 'a sad and splendid book' New York Times Book Review