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PUBLICATION DAY = 10 MAY 2024

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Shortlisted for the 2021 International Prize for Arabic Fiction

BY 

ABDELMAJID SEBBATA

Translated from the Arabic by RAPHAEL COHEN

“A literary who-done-it that continues to surprise until the very last page as Sebbata leaves a collage of clues in Moscow, New York, Denver and Morocco. Especially fun for the sophisticated reader of literature, Sebata balances the tightrope between reality and fiction.”

Gretchen McCullogh, author of Confessions of a Knight Errant

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Author Abdelmajid Sebbata has a passion for thoughtful and serious reading, a passion which is shared by his main characters and imparted to the reader in innovative ways that help to unlock the secrets that the protagonists and the readers seek to reveal in this intricately structured novel  Each chapter's title is the title of a literary book, which is followed by a quotation from a another literary work. All are works that consider issues of human values and dignity, which is central to unravelling the riddles of The Secrets of Folder 42. 

In this thriller-cum-jigsaw puzzle, two storylines play out across continents and true historical events as American novelist Christine McMillan and literature student Rachid Bennacer start to unravel the strange connections they find in the novel The Moroccan Jigsaw Puzzle, while school chess champion Zouhair Belkacem, shunted off to medical school in Moscow to avoid a rape charge, returns to Morocco in time for a spectacular crunch day. 

Two novels are critical for unravelling the secrets:

1  – A Moroccan Jigsaw Puzzle by Moroccan writer Khalid Rafiqi –  whose illusive publisher has actually provided Sebbata with the full list of book titles that make up the chapter headings.  The secrets that this book reveals to American novelist Christine McMillan and Moroccan literature student Rachid Bennacer lead them to a devastating discovery (spoiler alert). 

2 – Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, the great Russian romantic poet. This becomes central at crucial moments in both story lines, and runs, almost like a totem, throughout Sebbata’s thrilling novel. 

* * *

The Secrets of Folder 42 opens with the author forgetting his laptop and notebook in a taxi. What a chance!!

The reader is introduced to the protagonists via two storylines playing out across continents and true historical events. Their stories proceed separately and eventually interweave spectacularly. There’s successful novelist Christine McMillan – the unrivalled pioneer of new American realism who is facing writer’s block, and her friend from college days, Brandon, a former US soldier turned literary agent who is mad about books. He declares “the most beautiful thing is the tightrope walk between reality and fiction” – echoing Sebbata’s own words that it is “the art of the novel to make reality and fiction one” – and suggests that the secret past of Christine’s father in Morocco could be the subject for her next novel. There’s Rachid Bennacer, a porter in Christine’s hotel in Morocco, who is a young PhD literature researcher studying the 1989 novel A Moroccan Jigsaw Puzzle.

The passion for thoughtful and serious reading – by the characters as well as the author – is shared to the reader, each chapter headed by a different book title and a quotation from a another literary work, the full list of books having been suggested by the illusive publisher of A Moroccan Jigsaw Puzzle. All are works that consider issues of human values and dignity, which is central to unravelling the riddles of The Secrets of Folder 42.

In the other storyline, Zouhair Belkacem, nicknamed Kasparov at school for being the up-and-coming Moroccan chess champion, is shunted off to medical school in Moscow by his wealthy lawyer mother to avoid being charged with raping their underage maid at their summer beach house. He becomes great pals with Sergei Kryachkov, who has a passion, like him, for reading, especially Mikhail Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time, a book that surfaces at crucial moments, a totem, throughout Sebbata’s thrilling novel. After becoming a hostage in the 2002 Chechen resistance fighters’ seizure of Moscow’s Dubrovka Theatre, and escaping incarceration in Siberia, Zouhair returns to Morocco after many years. It’s crunch day for everyone when in a taxi he finds a laptop and notebook.

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