When a young man is given the chance to rewrite his future, he doesn't realize the price he will pay for giving up his past... Casablanca's stinking alleys are the only home that nineteen-year-old Youssef El-Mekki has ever known. Raised by his mother in a one-room home, the film stars flickering on the local cinema's screen offer the only glimmer of hope to his frustrated dreams of escape. Until, that is, the father he thought dead turns out to be very much alive. A high profile businessman with wealth to burn, Nabil is ...
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When a young man is given the chance to rewrite his future, he doesn't realize the price he will pay for giving up his past... Casablanca's stinking alleys are the only home that nineteen-year-old Youssef El-Mekki has ever known. Raised by his mother in a one-room home, the film stars flickering on the local cinema's screen offer the only glimmer of hope to his frustrated dreams of escape. Until, that is, the father he thought dead turns out to be very much alive. A high profile businessman with wealth to burn, Nabil is disenchanted with his daughter and eager to take in the boy he never knew. Soon Youssef is installed in his penthouse and sampling the gold-plated luxuries enjoyed by Casablanca's elite. But as he leaves the slums of his childhood behind him, he comes up against a starkly un-glittering reality...
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Add this copy of Secret Son to cart. $1.63, good condition, Sold by ZBK Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Woodland Park, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Algonquin Books.
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Used book in very good and clean conditions. Minor cosmetic defects may be present. Pages and cover intact. May include library marks notes marks and highlighting. Fast Shipping.
Add this copy of Secret Son to cart. $2.32, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by Algonquin Books.
Add this copy of Secret Son to cart. $2.32, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by Algonquin Books.
Add this copy of Secret Son to cart. $2.32, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by Algonquin Books.
Add this copy of Secret Son to cart. $2.34, good condition, Sold by Open Books Ltd rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Chicago, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by Algonquin Books.
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Add this copy of Secret Son to cart. $2.49, like new condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
Add this copy of Secret Son to cart. $2.49, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
Add this copy of Secret Son to cart. $2.49, like new condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
Add this copy of Secret Son to cart. $2.49, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
Add this copy of Secret Son to cart. $3.00, very good condition, Sold by HPB Inc. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Algonquin Books.
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I was surprised at how taken I was with this novel. Would I have picked it up off a bookseller's shelf (received as an ARC)? I'm not sure. However, I certainly appreciated Lalami's writing style and found her stark descriptions of modern Morocco, it's culture, and its struggles quite captivating. Gently, Lalami pulled me into Youseff's life and I found myself quite taken with this young man. I was also taken with his mother and the sacrifices she had made in order to avoid shaming her family. Did I agree with all of her decisions? No, but this did not prevent me from admiring her. This is a hard book to put down and it is certainly an appropriate novel for this decade. I give it only 4.5 stars simply because I did not care for the ending but, to be fair, I'm not sure if an ending I desired would have been best for the author's message.
Once again, I find myself in the difficult position of trying to find a new read once I have finished such an exceptional one.