For Bread Alone

About the Book

Driven from their home in the Rif by famine, Mohamed’s family sets out for Tangier in search of a better life. But hope proves fleeting. Eight of his siblings die from malnutrition and neglect, and another is killed by their father in a violent rage.

Alone and adrift, Mohamed survives by his wits, learning to charm and steal, plunging into a heady world of drugs, sex and alcohol. Proud, insolent and afraid of no one, he returns to Tangier where he is caught up in the violence of the 1952 independence riots. During a short spell in a filthy Moroccan jail, a fellow inmate will ignite in Mohamed an enduring love of literature – a spark that will ultimately change the course of his life.

A cult classic, For Bread Alone is an extraordinary tale of survival and self-discovery, offering a raw, unflinching portrait of the early years of one of the Arab world’s most celebrated and widely read authors.

About the Author

Mohamed Choukri is one of North Africa's most controversial and widely read authors. At the age of twenty he decided to learn to read and write classical Arabic. He went on to become a teacher and writer, finally being awarded the chair of Arabic Literature at Ibn Batuta College in Tangier.

About the Translator

Born in New York in 1910, Paul Bowles is considered one of the most remarkable American authors of the twentieth century. He studied music with composer Aaron Copland before moving to Tangier, Morocco, with his wife, Jane. His first novel, The Sheltering Sky, was a bestseller in the 1950s and was made into a film by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1990. Bowles's prolific career included many musical compositions, novels, collections of short stories, and books of travel, poetry, and translations. His novels include The Spider's Nest, Up Above The World, and Let It Come Down.

Reviews

'A true document of human desperation, shattering in its impact.'
Tennessee Williams

'A masterpiece ... A book to read, cherish and remember – and to show us again why we need books as well as bread.'
Morning Star

'[An] extraordinarily vivid, uncensored immediacy ... Using only undemonstrative prose, and asking for no special sympathy, Choukri conveys the experience of struggling to survive in a harsh world of dusty streets and unforgiving sunlight.'
Nicolas Clee, Guardian

'Five stars ... Achingly elegant ... Choukri's irrepressible, ultimately indomitable spirit is most touching and human.'
Independent

'Richly descriptive and engaging ... An enjoyable and worthwhile read.'
Socialist Review