Review

Leila Slimani's first novel in a planned Moroccan trilogy is a sweeping historical drama

By Christine Kearney
Updated October 8 2021 - 3:09pm, first published October 2 2021 - 12:00am
French-Moroccan writer Leila Slimani. Picture: Getty Images
French-Moroccan writer Leila Slimani. Picture: Getty Images
  • The Country of Others, by Leila Slimani. Faber. $29.99.

In the dying days of World War Two, young Mathilde falls for a dashing Moroccan soldier, Amine. Nineteen and tempestuous, the young Frenchwoman has been cooped up in her village in Alsace for four years, upset less by the war than by a lack of adventure. The pair marry.