Leila Slimani's books and writing style is so unique and recognisable that they are instantly comforting to me when I pick one up; they have a lyrical fluidity that is almost poetic. The subject matter of The Country of Others on a personal level was not as gripping to me as Lullaby, however I think those more interested in historical fiction will love it.

This book is written so well. I liked the setting also. I couldn’t connect to either the characters or the story.
I was expecting to love this a bit more than I did.

The Country of Others is a historical novel by Leïla Slimani, set in Morocco in the late 1940s. It tells the story of Mathilde, a young French woman who marries a Moroccan man and moves to his country. Mathilde is initially excited about her new life, but she soon finds herself struggling to adjust to Moroccan culture. She is also troubled by the poverty and inequality she sees around her. The Country of Others is a beautifully written novel that explores the themes of colonialism, culture clash, and female empowerment. It is a powerful and thought-provoking read that will stay with you long after you finish it.

Thought this portrayed a really interesting perspective from a period of time that has already been covered so often, and gave something new to the narrative.

A different direction for Leila Slimani, I DNF'd this title as the writing style wasn't for me.
I loved her two previous titles and will read whatever she writes next.

Loved this as my introduction to Leila Slimani! Can’t wait to try more of her work and looking forward to the next instalment of this as I hear it’s a planned trilogy! Will be heading to her other work to keep me busy whilst I wait for that to be released

Wow, is all I can say! Mathilde is written so so well I truly felt I could feel each of her emotions jumping off of the page. This is a well written book that I would definitely recommend! I love Leila slimanis work and this is certainly no exception.

DNF'd. Didn't click with the story or the characters, felt like the story started at an odd point in the characters lives when it could have covered some of the 'important' things that seem relevant to the plot. Writing didn't hook me and there's too many books out there to persevere. 3 stars because DNF'd

A stark and moving family saga reflecting on the constraints of female life, and in particular of mixed-race and -religion marriages. Set in a turbulent Morocco in the 1950s, with soldiers returning from helping France in the war and as Morocco seeks independence from France.

Mathilde meets the Moroccan Amine when he is stationed in Alsace where she lives. They are infatuated with each other and marry, then sail to Morocco to make a life on Amine's family farm.

Unlike her husband, Mathilde is white and Christian. She struggles to adapt to the isolation and completely different way of life expected in this new country. The Muslim religion of her husband and his family views women as subservient and often do not receive an education beyond learning how to run a household. Their mixed race daughter also finds life difficult as she isn't accepted by the other girls at the Christian school due to her appearance.

I find it very difficult to give up on a book, but to be honest this is one I struggled to get into and which took a number of concerted attempts to finally stick with. It does improve from about halfway, and especially in the final fifth, but the ending feels incomplete. This I now realise is possibly because this is due to be the first part of a trilogy.

Overall, the history and cultural comparisons/ramifications are interesting, but it felt a little flat and I'm left in two minds about whether I'd want to read more.

I just loved this book and if I really had to hold back I would give it a 4.5 stars (but I don't have to so I won't).

It has all the great ingredients for a good read: well written prose, fantastic character development, engaging plot, a moving and meaningful emotional dimension and...part one of a trilogy. What more could you ask for?

Granted: it may take a while to develop and grow on you and, judging by some of the other reviews, it may never grow on you. Perhaps it is because I could strongly identify with some aspects of the story, but as time passed and the story unfolded, I became very invested and I really connected with these people and cared about them. I thought the themes of being mixed race, of cultures clashing within and between people, of the evolution of romantic relationships, of maturing into adults and especially of how these are viewed through a child's eye were beautifully realised. This all set against a very interesting historical, cultural and geographic backdrop of Morocco in the 50s.

I can't recommend this book enough and I can't wait for book #2.


Many thanks to Faber and Faber and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Mathilde moves to Morocco after the war with her husband. She is French and he is not and this is his homeland, but she is not of this place. He starts a farm and she has to become a farmer's wife in a harsh and unfriendly landscape. She lives her children, but life is always so hard and has little joy. The fight for independence seems so distant, but in the end even they get caught up in it. A difficult book full of hard ship

This is a beautiful, powerful, completely unforgettable book. Slimani's prose is stark, subtle, sparse - really striking. And I deeply enjoyed her keen focus on the female experience. Bleak and stirring, I'd recommend this to anyone!

This is a beautiful evocative description of the messy richness of colonised countries and the communities that grow from mixed cultures. As we follow the life of the family of French Mathilde and Moroccan Arab Amine we learn about the glue that holds them together, the tensions that threaten to pull them apart and the sheer determination to overcome their differences and create their lives together. As always Slimani writes a spare skillful prose that evokes a sense of time and place wonderfully but is stark in the cold realities of human flaws.
With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

This book is by the author of Lullaby - which I think is called The Nanny in the US and possibly elsewhere - and I was expecting grimness from this book (Lullaby opens with a dead baby...) but also a heavy slant towards the female experience. And while this book is very different, because there's nothing so shocking as that opening scene from Lullaby, it's still quite a desolate book.

It does focus on the female experience, and the females in question in this story are Matild who is a young French woman who comes to Morocco to be with the man, Amin, that she fell in love with during World War II, and then also her daughter. They're trying to scratch a living on Amin's family farm, and Matild struggles with the physical isolation and also with occupying a sort of no-woman's land of being a foreigner who is unwelcome in a country that's trying to shake off the shackles of colonial rule, but also being shunned by the the remaining French community for marrying a Moroccan. Her daughter also has her own struggles - she's trying to fit in as a poor farm child with the wealthy colonialist kids at the French catholic school whilst being part Moroccan. And there are other women in this book too, namely Amin's mum and sister, whose lot in life is also pivotal to the story. It's all set against the backdrop of the Moroccan fight for independence, and I found it really interesting.

Slimani's writing is something I enjoyed a lot. Whilst it is quite a slow book and it's kind of got quite a bleak feel overall, I love that Slimani is the sort of author that can turn her hand to different stories and go in different directions so well. She's definitely an author that I need to read more of.

I enjoyed Leila Slimani's previous book, and was keen to read this French family sage, which follows a family from 1946 and 2016.

French Mathilde falls for a Moroccan soldier billeted in her town fighting for the French, Amine Belha. And after WW2 is over, she marries him and follows him back to Morocco where everything is new and strange to her.
Mathilde's own story runs alongside the struggles within Morocco as the independence movemment grows.

Well worth a read, I will be coming back for the rest of this series.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author Leila Slimani.
Slimani has a beautiful and vivid writing style and you feel incredibly involved and drawn in as a reader, I'm looking forward to reading more of her work especially as I know that this isn't her best-known novel.
'The Country of Others' was unsettling and slightly depressing at times, but successfully communicates what it was like to live in Morocco post WW2 as a foreigner, and all the characters' feelings of being an outsider and never quite fitting in. 4 stars

The Country of Others is a powerful, moving story that proves that this talented author can write historical fiction just as well as her contemporary stories. I was totally swept away by the prose, the characters and the setting.
Compelling read. I couldn’t put it down. I understand it’s planned as the first book of a trilogy. Will eagerly anticipate the next book.

A stark, thoughtful family saga, set in Morocco in the 1950s. Very different from Slimani’s earlier works, but with the same harsh fine delineation of character and insight into what drives people through love and hate. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a fascinating look at Leïla Slimani’s own family history.

Mathilde falls in love with, and marries, Amine Belhaj, a Moroccan stationed in Alsace. After the war, she sails to Morocco to live with Amine on his family farm. Life is so different to that in France, and Mathilde struggles to adapt. The French there shun her because of her husband, and Moroccans are suspicious of her because she’s French.

It’s a time of great upheaval in the 1950’s, as the Moroccans fight for independence from France, and life becomes increasingly dangerous for the Belhaj’s.

It’s a challenging life for Mathilde: she has to work hard, and Amine has a very fixed idea of a wife’s role. When she doesn’t stick to his rules, voices her opinions or disagrees, Amine beats her - he’s a violent man, scarred by the things that he saw and experienced in the war.

Mathilde does manage to insist that their daughter, Aicha, goes to a good French speaking school, and Aicha proves to be a good, diligent student - but the other girls at school are poisoned by their parents views: they’re very unkind and bully her.

There is a real feel for the heat and dust of Morocco. The contrasting cultures and religions of Christianity and Islam are shown, as well as the roles of women and how they are restricted in the light of their religions and it’s traditions. It looks at what it is to be a foreigner in a strange land; belonging, both in a country and a family; and the Moroccan struggle for independence from France.

This is going to be a trilogy, and I’m already fully invested in it - I can’t wait for the next book. Sam Taylor’s translation is perfect, and I hope that they’ll be translating the subsequent books as well.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for helping me (yet again!) with my NetGalley reading, and to Faber for my ebook copy through NetGalley.

Beautifully written, lucid, atmospheric. This novel is a slow burner that manages to transpose the reader to a different time and place.