If someone had told me that reading this book is akin to watching a fly-on-the-wall documentary, I probably wouldn’t have picked it off the shelf. But I am so glad I did.

This is a 1950s inter-racial family drama set in the years of Morocco’s struggle for independence . Mathilde, a young French woman meets Amine who fought with the French army and was stationed near her home town at the end of WW2. They fall in love and as a married couple they return to Amine’s home country, Morocco. Mathilda had been ready for a big adventure and was blissfully unaware of the challenges this move would present but it doesn’t take her long to realise that her otherness and her status as a foreign woman in an Arab country would turn the balance of power in their relationship upside down. ‘That’s how things are here’, is Amine’s simple explanation, asking her to put up and get on with the choice she has made. She is not accepted by the Arabs, mocked and belittled by the French, yet whilst fighting her feelings of loneliness and homesickness, she still manages to carve out little niches for herself that allow her to create a bit of space for herself in this ‘country of others’. – For a while.

Mathilde rebels against the patriarchal structures that bind her and those little acts of rebellion just serve to highlight her sense of not belonging, ‘the dependence, her submission, was like a rotting organ inside her body, something that left her disgusted with herself’.

Amine is torn between Mathilde’s attraction as a woman freer than others and the desire to live his life like his father’s and forefathers lived theirs. On one hand he is looking to modernise his farm, on the other he is deeply bound by traditional codes of honour and the approval of his compatriots.

What I found most striking is that their relationship survives, despite all the emotional and physical hardship. Deep down these two are bound to each other and like in any other relationship, it is sacrifice and compromise that sees them through.

After a brief visit to France, Mathilde realises that she does not belong there either anymore and decides to resign herself and embrace her fate. All this is played out before the backdrop of the imminent anti-colonial uprising. When it happens, there is no doubt on which side Mathilde and her family stand. When facing the burning inferno of the French farms around them, it is their daughter who gives expression to their feelings: ‘Let them burn. Let them go away. Let them die’.

I enjoyed this book on many levels, but what really made it for me was the exploration of the relationship between Mathilde and Amine, which poses questions I found touching, disturbing and in their truthfulness probing into the heart of any relationship of people who are trying to make it together.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Faber&Faber for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

In the first book of what (according to an article I recently read) promises to be a trilogy, Leïla Slimani weaves a story that is loosely based on the life of her grandmother. A young French woman called Mathilde falls for a Moroccan soldier, Amine, at the end of WW II. So keen is she on this man - and also desperate to chase adventure – that she accompanies him when he returns to his native land, where he is keen to build a farm on a plot that has come into his ownership. Unfortunately, the land is rock strewn and consists almost entirely of poor quality soil – it’s going to be a tough job to make this work.

In time, the pair are to have two children, a girl and a boy, and we are to meet a number of interesting characters who they come into contact with. But the farm work is tough and Amine, bereft of humour and a workaholic, proves to be difficult company. Has Mathilde made a terrible mistake, should she cut her losses and return to what would be a much more comfortable life in France? This story plays out during the decade leading up to Moroccan independence and over time the potential for an uprising and the associated impacts become an ever looming threat.

Mostly, this story is played out with the focus on Mathilde and the particular challenges that she faces, especially with her stern, bullying husband. But later we start to get a view through her daughter, Aïcha, too (perhaps with a view to setting up the next book?). The characters are persuasively drawn and the atmosphere of both time and place come through strongly, but for me the whole thing just felt a little too grim, with an excess of shade and a dearth of light. I actually found it hard work getting through this one.

I did finish it and I’m glad I did, but I’m finding it hard to rid myself of the feeling that though the voice was strong the storyline was actually quite weak. For me it had more style than substance. Will I come back for the second book (if there is one)? Probably not. That said, I do think that this is a book that will find an audience and many will appreciate the strengths of the writing and be less concerns about elements that, for me, were missing.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for an early copy in return for my honest review.
Firstly and perhaps more importantly, if you are a big fan of 'Lullaby' by this author, do not expect this to be the same.if you prefer fast paced,edge of your seat thrills then this may not be for you.
In this one Leila shifts her tone and genre into the world of 1950s Morocco and the time of the revolution there.
Our protagonist Mathilde marries someone of Moroccan origin and moves from France to live there in a homestead left to her husband. She does so thinking her life will be joyful and with freedom from her past. Unfortunately this isn't the case, in fact she feels more trapped and marginalised as a woman there.
This is an important piece of writing and documents the struggles of the time and hardships for women. It is based on the author's own memories and experiences so there is no doubting it's authenticity. However at times it feels more memoir than fiction and is somewhat disjointed in places.
It is my opinion that to enjoy this book,you come with no preconceived ideas from her other works, forget she writes fantastic,creepy psychological books and look at it with fresh eyes. It is well written and gives a sense of atmosphere of time and place, but it reads like some debut novels do. The plot doesn't always run smoothly which can affect your understanding.
I appreciate why she felt compelled to tell this story. I would have preferred it as a memoir.
Perhaps now we can move back to what she writes best.

A compelling read from a period in history I knew nothing about.

Mathilde meets and marries her Moroccan husband, Amine, when he spends time in Alsace fighting in the war for France. She is young and has a very romantic and naive idea of married life in Morocco.

On arriving in Morocco she quickly realised that it won’t all be as perfect as she thought, but she works hard to adapt and accept her role as a French wife and mother in a very Arabic family.

A wonderful read, from an interesting time in history, with great characters who have a story to tell.

Having previously read Lullaby I had really high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, I struggled to stay engaged with the story and didn’t enjoy this half as much.

Mathilde, a young French woman, meets Amine when he’s stationed in France during the Second World War. After a whirlwind romance they marry, and soon she’s on her way to a new life in Morocco. For me this book was almost as much a history lesson as a novel. I knew little about the uprising in Morocco against the French, which is one of the main themes of this book. It also explores the role of women in Moroccan society, told through the eyes of Mathilde as she must learn to accept a new way of life that doesn’t offer the same freedoms as the one she had in France.

This book is incredibly well researched, and you feel the frustrations of the characters in the challenges that they face trying to build a family home and raise their children in such a divided society, I’ve seen this book recommended as one for fans of Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, and I’m afraid that I just didn’t find myself loving those books as much as many others.

If you’re a fan of family dramas set against a background of recent history then this book will be perfect for you. If you’re after a fast paced story packed with twists and turns then I’d maybe look elsewhere.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This historical novel by Leila Slimani is a translation from the French novel Le pays des autres published in 2020. The title of this book works well on many levels to indicate the content: post-WW2 Morocco, governed by the French but the country of the native Moroccans; French Mathilde, married to Moroccan Amine, living in Morocco and caught between cultures; Mathilde on her visit back to her native Alsace finding herself out of step with her once friends; Aicha, mixed-race daughter of Mathilde and Amine, bullied at school for being different; Amine's brother, Omar, anti-French imperialism and fighting for Moroccan independence; Selma, Amine's younger sister, desperate to break the chains attached to being a young Moroccan woman in this country at this time; Amine himself, having fought in the French army during the war but now facing prejudice from the French in Morocco.
The book is based on the experiences of the writer's own family, dealing with the life of Slimani's maternal grandparents. This is a story of how humans' concentration on difference can exacerbate seemingly small issues into large scale grievances and ultimately pain, destruction and death.
I really enjoyed this book with its insight into the Moroccan Wars of independence about which I previously only knew a very little. I thought the characters, particularly Mathilde, Aicha and Selma, were very well crafted, all with flaws and issues. I did think the book ended somewhat abruptly and was glad to read that it is in fact the first in a planned trilogy. I look forward to the subsequent books in the series.

I found this story of a cross culture marriage between a French woman and a Moroccan soldier who met during the Second World War interesting but not particularly compelling. The story itself focused on Mathilde’s desire to romanticise her choice to move with her husband to his farm in Morocco and the reality and hardship that life presented to her. Although well conceived and well written, I found it difficult to get into and I struggled to understand the motivation of the characters. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the chance to read an advance copy.

Mathilde is a young French woman who meets and marries a Moroccan soldier during WWII. After the war they move to Morocco to his isolated run down family farm. Mathilde becomes a mother. It is a total culture shock for Mathilde, not only the heat and sheer poverty of her existence but also the isolation and being treated with suspicion and shunned by society and her in laws. Her charming soldier is now a disgruntled and abusive husband but can she leave?

I liked the premise of this book but found the pacing off. It was difficult to get inside the head of Mathilde and had strange insights randomly thrown in. For example, within the first few pages without knowing much about Mathilde we are told she masturbates and achieves orgasm through imagining the carnage and violence of the war. It was just weird and not referred to again or in keeping with the character. Events didn't flow or make sense. We are told Mathilde's husband is violent and abusive and both he and his family are against education for girls and being peniless can't afford anything and that Mathilde is needed to work every moment of the day but then their daughter is sent to primary school even though it is 15 miles away, requiring Mathilde to make a 30 mile round trip twice a day in their unreliable van - how did she persuade the family, how can they afford the petrol etc.? None of it is explained. Due to events like this I found the narrative confusing and disjointed.. It also felt flat and dull.

I absolutely loved this book. I'm a big fan of Leïla Slimani, having read her book Lullaby a while ago. I love how she portrays the complex, unsavoury inner workings of the human mind - Mathilde's desire to leave her children behind in Morocco; Amine's patriarchal attitudes; his mother's madness. I loved this as her first attempt at historical fiction; it still felt really embedded in human characters as a product of their environment rather than trying to explore a real story of the rebels or something else. In translation, she's equally as interesting and engaging as in French, which is a credit to her translator. I genuinely loved this book and gobbled it down over a weekend.

This is not a book to read for entertainment - its characters and subject matter are too disturbing for that, but it is a book to read for an understanding of how different cultures can clash and how what is unacceptable in one culture is a part of everyday life in another. The story centres around Mathilde, a French woman who meets her Moroccan husband Amine in the 1940s when Amine has been conscripted into the French army. The couple go to live in Morocco and have two children, and their mix of cultures present challenges to them, their families and their society as Morocco begins its fight to gain independence form the French colonists. This is not an easy read - Slimani doesn’t hold back from describing violence, abuse or bloodshed, but this is not done in a gratuitous way, it is simply part of the lives of the characters, the country and the time the story is set. This book is not just a gripping insight into the country of others, but into the clashes of cultures that still form a part our world.

Slimani is a bold storyteller, unafraid to shy away from difficult subjects and to present them in a manner that invites the reader to look at something in new ways. The huge cast and scope of this ambitious novel is quite a big step away from the much more intimate tales of her previous novels in translation, yet the heart of her approach - to consider facets of society and the human condition in ways we might not always be comfortable with – remains intact. This is not an easy read. It is, however, a valuable one.

The Country Of Others by Leila Slimani tells the story of Mathilde, a French catholic woman who falls for Amine, a Moroccan soldier. The story is set against a background of political turmoil with Morocco fighting for independence from France. They had met when Amine was stationed in Alsace fighting for France during WW2. Mathilde follows Amine back to Morroco to begin a new life on an uncultivated farm left to Amine by his father. This historical fiction gives us an insight into the struggle of a nation wanting its own dependence and a young couple's aspirations for freedom from societal norms. Reading this novel, one can see why Leila Slimani is a successful writer. The places' and characters' descriptions are so vivid. Mathilde, Amine, their two children, their relatives, farmhands, maids, neighbours all come to life and are relatable. The story and the characters draw you in as they navigate the issues of religion, freedom, familial relationship, cultural differences, expectations. I recommend this book and look forward to reading more of the author's work.

This is an interesting and unusual book, set in Morocco after the second world war, about the marriage of a French woman and Moroccan man. It gives insights into the challenges of moving to a different culture. There is love between the couple and their family and friends, but the couple still seem to be separate from the wider community. The characters are realistic, I really cared about some of them.. The ending was a bit abrupt..

This novel represents a shift in direction from Leila Slimani, here she draws inspiration from her personal past history in this well researched piece of character driven historical fiction that takes in WW2, spanning the years and covering the 1950s. The strong Catholic Mathilde falls for a Muslim Moroccan soldier, Amine Belhaj, stationed in Alsace, fighting for the French in the war, becoming an interracial couple that gets married. She moves to Morocco with Amine, settling on inherited land to start a farm in a harsh, isolating and hostile environment. Her romantic dreams are shattered by the grim realities she is confronted by, the daily grind and hardships, the loneliness, the shock of a different culture she is not prepared for, the differing attitudes and expectations of women, the oppression, and the poverty.

She is shunned by the French community for marrying a Moroccan and regarded with suspicion by locals for not being one of them amidst the divisive background of political upheaval, the tensions and violence, with the country's fight for freedom and independence from France. Amine is a different man at home, there is abuse, and perhaps unsurprisingly, their love dissipates in the face of competing challenges, and their different values. This inevitably leads to conflict, such as Mathilde having to fight for her independence, and insisting on the education of her smart and intelligent daughter Aicha at a Catholic school, who in turn is made to feel like the outsider at school, not accepted, and bullied. Amine's own family is conflicted, divided and torn, a mirror and echo of what is happening in the country at large, and with the beautiful Selma wanting to be free of the constraints of family and societal attitudes.

Slimani evokes this complex historical period with skill, drawing parallels between Mathilde's and women's struggle for independence with that of the national resistance to shake off the shackles of the French, both intent on gaining freedom and independence. I found myself immersed in this historical time and place, feeling the heat and dust, the tensions, and caught up in the struggles and feelings of the sensitively portrayed flawed and complicated characters, all living 'in the country of others'. This is such a memorable and thought provoking read, of identity, belonging, being a woman, family, religion, traditions, culture, freedom, conflictive loyalties and race, made all the more powerful with its cultural, social, political and familial insights. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I did not find this an easy read but I found it a very worthwhile and thought provoking read. The extreme challenges faced by Mathilde of marriage into a different culture, the desperate struggle to scrape a living in such an inhospitable environment, to live with her husband's pride and such different cultural expectations are unthinkable to me. Beautifully and powerfully written, this is not a book you will ever forget. I will certainly stock in my bookshop.

Leïla Slimani does not take sides, no one is good or bad. You understand the motivations of Mathilde and the people around her, and how difficult it is to pursue your dreams with respect for others. This is an all-consuming read but one that is worth sticking with!

3.5/5.

This is a captivating, heartbreaking tale. It is a story of relationships, of struggle and of what it means to belong.

It may not be to everyone's tastes but I thought it was beautifully written and though we're kept somewhat at a distance, I found myself drawn into the characters' stories and thinking about them afterwards. It is skillfully written and quite eye-opening.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to read another book about Morocco to learn more about this wonderful country and its history. This novel gave me a greater appreciation and insight as to the difficulties faced by European women marrying into a very different culture in the mid-1950s. The references to the political unrest in Morocco at this time were a revelation and proved a powerful reminder of the country before it gained independence.

The novel is an easy read, although in parts it doesn’t flow smoothly between sections which feels out of place with the main characters’ lives. This is a thoughtful and well researched, but a sad rendition of the real world.

This is different than Leila Slimani's works. It is a heartbreaking story about love, family, relationships and lonliness. I didn't have connection with the charcters and I didn't quiet get it.

Mathilde is a free spirited and strong willed French woman who falls in love with Amine, a Moroccan soldier during WWII. After the War Mathilde returns to Morocco with Amine but a harsh and unforgiving landscape and her trouble to assimilate all culminate in the violence that lead's to Morocco's independence.

I felt a huge amount of empathy for Mathilde and her journey as well as that of Amine. At times this was difficult to read with violence against women and the history of Morocco was heart-breaking but a beautiful and gripping read that I couldn't put down.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review