Ah, this is my first Slimani and definitely not my last. The Country of Others was a beautifully written book - stunning and atmospheric. Translated fiction always has a more lucid and dreamy feel, which The Country of Others has. I've heard it's part of a series - I can't wait to pick up the further books.

A very interesting book. Set in Morocco in the 1940s we get immersed in that world - time and place. Beautiful descriptions, moving story with characters you’ll really root for. Tense and dramatic, a masterful story. I like Leila Slimani - and this was a great translation of her work. Thank you for sending this to me.

The first book in a family saga trilogy about a Moroccan family in the lead up to Morocco’s independence in 1955. At its heart it’s the story Mathilde, her life with her husband Amine in a new country that has become her home and her relationship with children. I was so excited when I found out that this is part based on Slimani’s own family history and exploration into her heritage, it just makes it all the more interesting.

There is a real focus on the characters’ perspective of war and there are quite a lot of characters introduced, which at times I found to be a bit confusing and unnecessary. Exploring race, class, nationality, belonging and violence, much of the story is raw and at times made me feel uncomfortable, in a way that good writing can.

This is an atmospheric slow burner of a book. It didn’t grip me like I expected, but I enjoyed dipping in and out of this for and enjoyable read. What I really loved was the descriptive nature, particularly descriptions of the setting that transported me to Morocco. The farmlands and mountains, the hustle of people juxtaposed with the quiet and loneliness often felt by Mathilde.

I’ve previously read two novels by Slimani and found this to be VERY different from her other writings and what I was expecting when I picked this up, but I really enjoyed it and will look out for the follow up.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The first in a planned trilogy of books exploring her heritage, Slimani’s newest novel takes us to post-war Morocco as the country fights for independence: young Frenchwoman Mathilde has recently married Moroccan-born soldier Amine Belhaj, but her eyes are slowly opening to the reality of her new life overseas. The inequality and lack of women’s rights incenses her, much to the horror of her new family – and no matter what lies she spins in letters back to her sister - the blasted, sweeping panoramas of desert and unflinching locals are a world away from the exotic adventures she’d dreamed of when the couple first met in Alsace, while Amine was billeted in Mathilde’s town during the war. After years spent sharing space with Amine’s extremely traditional mother Mouilala, the couple move out of the Medina to work a remote farm owned by the family: Amine spends every waking hour trying to domesticate the wild landscape while Mathilde raises their two children in an uncertain world. The domestic culture clashes are played out on a national scale: soon uprisings make it difficult for the brave young woman to move around outside her new home. Attacked by the French for her dark-haired husband and pelted with stones by the Moroccans for her otherness, married to a seeming stranger, every day sees Mathilde questioning her choices: and yet, she endures. Bewildering, compelling and expertly drawn, this sweeping epic will draw you in and leave you impatient for the next in the series.

Featured in the August issue of Cambridge Edition Magazine – online.bright-publishing.com/view/1003612827/24/ – thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy!

I’m not usually a fan of translated books, but this is so well translated that it reads as if it was originally written in English.I hadn’t read any of this author’s previous novels so I had no idea what to expect,but I was hooked from the start and read it very quickly.It’s the first part of a trilogy and I will look forward to the next part of the story.
The descriptions of post war Morocco are wonderful and I could feel myself there ,as Leila Slimani describes the sights ,sounds and smells so beautifully.The story tells of Mathilde, a Frenchwoman who marries Amine after the Second World War and goes to live on his farm in rural Morocco.At first life is hard for her ,but after the birth of her children she finds a purpose when she develops a skill for medicine and healing ,and is in demand by the local people.
There is no attempt to hide the hardship of life, particularly for women who are often treated brutally by the men in their lives.As the independence movement gathers momentum, we are left wondering what will become of the family,and particularly what will happen to Aicha, the daughter of the couple.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review which reflects my own opinion.

I didn't enjoy this as much as Slimani's other books. I did like the setting and the characters but it wasn't as gripping and i didn't have the drive to finish it. The translation was done really well and the writing was beautiful. The story was built well over the story and it did have some really interesting moments in this.

I was a little sceptical about the book at first as I really didn't enjoy Lullaby, but was won over in the end. I read it in three days and could barely put it down. A great read when you want to lose yourself in a book and forget the world.

I found this novel strangely lacklustre and ….well, ordinary. Surprising really, after Slimani’s earlier novels, which I found original and compelling. Not that I didn’t enjoy this one, as it’s a pleasant enough read, but it seemed to be missing something, and I failed to fully engage with the characters and their plight. In Alsace in 1944 Mathilde falls in love with a Moroccan soldier billeted nearby and returns with him to Morocco where they embark on a life together on his farm. Inevitably it’s a major culture shock for Mathilde, going from “civilised” France to a patriarchal and conventional Muslim country. Plus post-war Morocco is on the verge of full-scale rebellion against French rule, and unrest is increasing. Although Mathilde reconciles herself to her new life up to a point, her daughter Aicha in particular is caught between the two worlds of Arabic life and French colonialist rule, and all that it entails for her. There were very few surprises in the book, and in fact it was all pretty predictable, and although important themes are explored – race, class, interracial relationships, colonialism and decolonisation – it all just felt flat somehow. Nevertheless, the book mostly held my attention, and I wanted to see how it all panned out for the family, but a certain magic was definitely lacking.

The Country Of Others

Set in post Second World War Morocco as the country struggles between the end of colonisation and the desire for independence the novel follows Mathilde (a French woman) and Amine (a Moroccan man). Mathilde has grown up during the second world war and all the confinements that it brings. When she is 18 years old she meets Amine, an older more worldly soldier who seems exciting and a way to something more exotic. In reality Amine takes his new bride to live on a farm outside Meknes. It isn’t even fruitful land and life is hard, as Amine struggles to make the farm work he becomes resentful and directs this towards his wife. They have a daughter Aicha who struggles at her French school as the daughter of a Moroccan farmer and with her parents tumultuous relationship.

I am a huge admirer of family and historical novels but this didn’t quite work for me. The narratives kept switching and I got timelines confused in the first half. I wanted to either follow Mathilde or Aicha but instead got both and therefore not enough of either. Such as when Mathilde was badly beaten by her husband and converted to Islam we stopped getting Mathilde's perspective.

There were also a multitude of characters who were brought in briefly but didn’t seem to make much of an impact on the overall story of the family. For example, Mademoiselle Fabre, who was such an interesting character but appeared for two pages without much effect. It just ended up feeling like random stories inserted into the novel which broke the pace and engagement with the main characters.

I did enjoy some of this novel. Mathilde’s trip home for her father’s funeral and her temptation to abandon her life in Morocco gave her character more dimensions. I thought the descriptions of Morocco were rich and vivid. The final fifth of the book was a page turner as the war for independence came dangerously close to their farm and at that point I started to feel more attached to the characters, particularly Mathilde. Alas that was too late in the day for me and I just feel this novel was trying to do and be too much.

Thanks to Faber and Faber and NetGalley for ARC.
This novel should have content warnings for violence, including domestic and sexual violence.

This is a family story set in interesting times - Mathilde leaves her home of Alsace after World War II to make a life with her handsome soldier husband in his country of Morocco. Amine has a plot of land his father dreamed of turning into a successful farm, and Amine is determined to bring farming into the modern era. Mathilde has to try to accommodate to a new way of life, but wants to retain some of her own culture and identity.
They face multiple obstacles on the backdrop of a growing movement for independence in Morocco.

This is beautifully written in many places, but overall I felt that it lacked - something. There were too many characters introduced briefly, never to return. The narrative switched between characters bewilderingly.
The characters seemed to behave inconsistently from time to time. If this is conceived as part of a longer story, it might make more sense as the whole thing unfolds. The historical elements are fascinating.

Leila Slimani's latest lacks the razor sharpness of her previous work. It was an interesting story although I was only drawn in by the female characters. Mathilde is ferociously attracted to Amine, and the writing around that is thrilling stuff. Amine himself becomes predictably traditional in his native land, and I longed to see Mathilde break free.

I found this took quite a bit of concentration to read, though perhaps this is more due to being tired! However, the story of Mathilde, a young woman from Alsace who marries Amine, a Moroccan soldier who has fought for France, at the end of the second world war and moves to a small town in the North African country, far from everything and everyone she knows is compelling. Slimani shows just how difficult it is to adjust to a life of hard work in a country where so much is different, not least the expectations of women, with a husband who doesn't truly understand his European wife. We follow their story over the next ten years or so as the Moroccan fight for independence escalates and threatens everything Mathilde and Amine have worked for.

It was a really interesting story about a period of history I knew little about, and credit must go to both the author for so skillfully weaving French and Moroccan history and viewpoints together and to her translator for keeping the sense and flow of the story.

Wonderfully written. I love reading about world war 2 and the different viewpoints of people from other countries. Post war life was tough for many people in many countries. This book was so good at explaining how those who moved countries still struggled to adapt to new lives and post world war 2 times still had its own issues.

Although this book is beautifully written I cannot say I enjoyed it. Mainly because I could not engage with the characters and was uncomfortable with the domestic violence. It certainly showed the difficulty in mixeD cultures but not what I expected

Thanks to @NetGalley, @FaberBooks and the author for the copy of 'The Country of Others' in translation from the original 'Le pays des autres'. This is the third fictional offering from Lëila Slimani and a real departure from her previous two novels 'Lullaby' and 'Adèle'. Both of the previous novels were quite overt in their portrayal of gender representation and what is expected of women in modern French society but this is definitely a change - a literary exemplification of race and class through politics. The prose is very different too with the visual and quite cinematic images of vivid reds of geraniums and hibiscus flowers and the olfactory references to honey cakes, mint tea and cherries steeped in eau de vivre.

However, this is the first in the historical family saga trilogy following the story of the French Catholic woman Mathilde who falls in love with Moroccan Muslim Amine Belhaj in 1944. This is the story of Mathilde's alienation in a time of political upheaval and commencement of Morroco's independence from France. Mathilde is clearly displaced in Morocco and finds in difficult to integrate into Moroccan society; her lack of independence troubles her and Slimani really captures this sense of being trapped between two worlds in particular during Mathilde's journey back to France.

It's definitely a diversion from the genre I usually read and made me consider concepts of nationalism, colonialism and what it means to be a settler and a native. I like the fact it's the start of a trilogy (I am usually a stand alone book type of reader) and I feel that Slimani has really set the foundations for the continuance of this tale.

I thought this was beautifully written (credit to the translator!) and really evocative of post-WW2 French and Moroccan culture. I studied French at university and learnt a little about France's colonial history and the uprisings in this region, so it was really interesting to see this dynamic play out in one family's story. I thought the issues of displacement and cultural differences were handled really well, with both an eye for drama and for sensitivity to the emotions of the characters. I believe Slimani's family history bears some resemblance to that of her characters so she has a good understanding of the issues and can explore them beautifully. I would like to read this book again and pick up more books from the author.

Leila Slimani gives a beautifully written insight into Forties Morocco as a country of others. Mathilde is "other" both being French, being a woman and being a Christian. Her status in Morocco is always subjugated as a women but her nationality sometimes gives her privilege, sometimes marks her out. Her education is little use here but she learns to use to it help others with their health. She is naive and immature but thrown into a culture she has only viewed romantically. Slimani uses very few words to mark the passage of time and easily slips between the voice of Mathilde and that of her daughter, Aicha. Her relationship with Amine is a difficult one and her experience of motherhood equally fraught. A trip back to France highlights the life she could have led and the hardship of her choice to marry Amine. The descriptions of Morocco are evocative and earthy, all life and death is here, war and survival.

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.

Have you ever read a book set in Morocco? As a French person, I was intrigued by The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani, published on the 5th. It was translated from French (Le Pays des Autres) by Sam Taylor, so a perfect read for Women in Translation month. I am ashamed to say that I never read anything else by Slimani, even though she is extremely famous in France.

Anyway. The Country of Others is a historical fiction book about Mathilde, a young French woman from Alsace, who meets a Moroccan soldier called Amine, in 1944. They fall in love, she gets pregnant, they get married and move together to Morocco.
This is not a romance. We follow all the difficulties that the couple experience, as the land that Amine was planning to cultivate turns out to be dry and really hard to exploit.

What I liked:
- The descriptions of the landscapes and the towns. I was immersed in the sounds and smells of North Africa.
- The political background of the novel. Morroco was a French colony at the time, and the tensions between the French colonists and the Arab population was well-presented, without falling into manichaeism.
- The account of various women's lives is an important reminder of the freedom (or lack of) they had in France and Morocco at the time.

What bothered me:
- The constant switch of narrators was distracting, points of view often changing within the same paragraph.
- I found every single character unlikeable. Mathilde is naive and immature, Amine is violent... It made it really hard to empathise with them.
- The blunt writing style made some passages really hard to read, and some trigger warnings for domestic violence are definitely needed here.
- There are many characters in the background who never get given a voice, but maybe that was the point, as they are slaves and labourers?
- The book starts really slow, and plot-wise nothing much happens, until the last third or so of the book.
- I did not realise that this book was part of a planned trilogy until I read an article about it when I was about 60% in. This means that the ending does not really tie anything in...

All in all, I would give The Country of Others ⭐⭐⭐💫 (rounded down to 3)

Reading this book felt like an effort and was a frustrating experience, especially in the first half. Fewer narrators would probably have helped me connect with the protagonists more. I think I would still read the second volume (when it gets published) as I want to know what happens to the characters, but it's not a book I would recommend to everyone. It is a solid piece of historical fiction if you are interested in France and/or Morocco.

Thank you @NetGalley and @faberbooks for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Country of Others, war, war, war by Leila Slimani
Synopsis:
Mathilde and Amine, she Alsatian, him, Moroccan who fought in the French army, fell in love after the second world war. The mixt couple , freshly married, leave for Morocco, to settle on a rocky land that he dreams of cultivating . Mathilde, young and impulsive, struggles with isolation but also to set in a colony where she is seen as a French invader and seen as the woman who married an Arab by the european.

This book is beautiful. From the first pages, I am in Morocco, I can see Mathilde, Amine, the harsh live, feel their struggles, Mathilde's solitude, Amine's struggles with his own culture.
The writing is fluid and makes the reading a delight. There are some wonderful scenes in this first saga. The most beautiful and metaphorical one is the 'Lemange' tree. At the birth of their first daughter, Amine plants a lemon tree on top of an orange tree, renamed the Lemange tree. The tree grows to a beautiful tree but the fruits are inedible. This is by far the most poetic image in the book. A metaphor for their own family but also the country itself. The book questions colonisation ( the book ends in 1956 at the dawn of the country independence), wars, mixt culture., but also women place in a Muslim country ,in 1950's ( in France also) The Country of Others can also be thought as the country of Men.
The book generates a sensuality as hot as the Moroccan sun. So, yes, I loved every pages of the Country of Others.


Leila Slimani is a well-known writer for mostly having won the Goncourt for 'Chanson douce. This time, Leila Slimali embarks on her own family history. It is the first of a trilogy and I am looking forward to know more about the Aisha, the small child with unruly hair who excelled in Latin and Maths.
I was not a big fan f Ferrante because of the writing style, but there is a new genre emerging these days, the re birth of family saga.