[In the following excerpt, Thatcher applauds Ben Jelloun's use of metaphor and imagery in The Sand Child, calling the novel “sensitive and perceptive.”]

All of these novels are thematically rich. Tahar Ben Jelloun's The Sand Child, for example, is based firmly on culture/tradition, but the plot is influenced by and developed with the aid of literary legacy, legend, and the vivid imagination of the author.

France's most prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt was awarded in November 1987 to Moroccan writer Ben Jelloun for his novel, The Sacred Night, sequel to The Sand Child. Only six non-French novelists have achieved this distinction since the prize was first awarded in 1903, and Ben Jelloun is the first to be chosen from one of France's former North African colonies. The Sand Child, which has been translated into 15 other languages, is the author's first book to appear in English.

It tells the story of Hajji Ahmed, a wealthy merchant who is the father of seven daughters. Under the laws of Islam, daughters may only inherit one-third of their father's wealth. Hajji Ahmed, determined that his brothers shall not receive the bulk of his property, decides that his eighth child will be considered a boy regardless of gender. Great secrecy surrounds the birth of his eighth daughter, who is named Ahmed Mohammed and greeted with celebration as the long-awaited heir.

How this deception is maintained through Ahmed Mohammed's circumcision, trips to the hammam (bathhouse), schooling, maturity, introduction to society, an increasingly important role in the family business, and marriage to a handicapped cousin is imaginatively and entertainingly told. When Ahmed Mohammed dies, his journal is found, and his secret is revealed.

The journal falls into the hands of a storyteller in Marrakech. He intrigues his listeners with the tale, but disappears before it is finished. Members of his audience undertake to finish the story, each in his own style, until the storyteller returns.

This novel is perhaps the most complex of those under review here, because of the many levels on which the story is told and because of its conspicuous oral and traditional heritage. For example, the story taps into many Arab legends, including one that Antar, the famous Arab hero, was a woman, and another that a well-known bandit chief was a woman (pp. 60-2).

The novel is sensitive and perceptive when one of the listeners describes Ahmed Mohammed's struggle with the feminine side of “his” nature. The work is also violent, fantastic, convoluted in style, rich in images, and filled with metaphors and the metaphysical. It is to be hoped that its sequel, The Sacred Night, will soon be available in English and that it will contain the answers to some of the questions aroused by this strange masterpiece.