The great crossing

Desperate Moroccan immigrants are the main characters in the novel Hope and Other Dangerous Desires by Laila Lalami. Writer Abdelkader Benali talks with this Moroccan writer from the United States. English spoken.

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Information

Date and time Friday 12 January 2007 21:40 tot 22:01 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - kleine zaal

From Tanger to Europe go the harragas. They risk their lives in rickety boats, expecting the fulfilment of their dangerous desires at the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar. Moroccan immigrants, driven by misfortune to the most desperate acts, are the main characters in the novel Hope and Other Dangerous Desires by Laila Lalami. Writer Abdelkader Benali talked with this Moroccan writer from the United States. Lalami is well-known too for her blog, and for a sharp critique of Ayaan Hirsi Ali that appeared in The Nation magazine. English spoken.

Line-up

Laila Lalami

was born and raised in Morocco and studied English in Rabat, London and California. She is editor of the literary weblog www.moorishgirl.com, which was reviewed in USA Today and de Washington Post. In addition, articles by her have been published in among others the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Nation, The Baltimore Review and The Independent. Hoop en andere gevaarlijke verlangens (Hope and Other Dangerous Desires) is Laila Lalami’s fiction debut and was published in October 2005 with Algonquin Books. She lives in Portland, Oregon (US) with her husband and child.
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Abdelkader Benali

(Morocco, 1975) is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright and curator. His 1996 debut, Bruiloft aan zee (Wedding By the Sea), was an immediate success. His second novel, De langverwachte (The Long-awaited) won him the prestigious 2003 Libris Literature Award. Benali's subjects vary, but sports and the migrant who never really feels at home are recurring themes. He has written novels about his great passion of running, about his travels, and about migrants' cultural identity (Bad Boy). His work has been published internationally. Recent books include the novel Paradijsvogel boven Hoge Woerd (Bird of Paradise over Hoge Woerd, 2022) and Het andere verhaal (The Other Story, 2022), an essay about his research into 75 years of modern Moroccan art.
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