The Country of Others: Slimani begins colonial trilogy not with a bang, but with a sprawling saga

The French-Moroccan author eschews the harrowing plots of her previous novels in a fictionalisation of her grandparents’ lives in the 1950s

Leïla Slimani pulls no punches in describing how women live their lives ‘at the mercy of others’.

FICTION

The Country of Others

By Leïla Slimani

Faber, €17.55

Leïla Slimani’s third novel is the first in a projected trilogy about her French-Moroccan heritage. It tells the fictionalised story of her maternal grandparents during the turbulent 1950s, with tensions rising as Africa begins the uncomfortable and sometimes brutal process of decolonisation.

Mathilde meets the handsome Moroccan soldier Amine in Alsace towards the end of World War II. They promptly fall in love, marry and ...