Secret Son

by: Laila Lalami

Published by: Algonquin Books

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. Secret Son is her first novel and she has set it in Casablanca, in her home country. It is a story where several issues come into play–poverty vs. wealth, pride vs. shame, to name just a few.

The main character, Youssef El Mekki, has grown up in the slums of Casablanca with his widowed mother. She has told him stories about his father who she said died before he was born. They struggle to get by, but she has a job at a hospital and has made enough for him to get through school and into the university. He has always had big dreams of a better life and spent much of his free time watching movies that seemed to exemplify the life he wanted to live.

One day as he pressed her for more information about his father, Youssef discovered that she had not been telling him the truth. His father was a wealthy businessman in Casablanca, and he is their illegitimate son. Youssef’s worldview begins to get turned upside down with this new knowledge. At first it causes him shame for his mother, then he meets his father and begins to try life in the world of the haves, rather than the have-nots. This all adds a great deal of complexity to his life.

Lalami has created very strong characters. They are each an example of some segment of modern Moroccan society. Youssef and his mother are poor, but educated. His father is wealthy and rather unprincipled. Youssef’s friend Maati is both poor and uneducated – having failed the school exams, but he gets a job right away. Hatim is a leader and recruiter for the more radical form of Islam that is beginning to get a foothold in the country. His friend Amin is a student, studying to be a lawyer. The ways in which Youssef has to deal with each of these kinds of groups makes the plot as rich and complicated as a Moroccan bazaar.

I generally enjoy books that give a taste of life in another culture and this one did not disappoint. I would highly recommend it. Secret Son would also make an excellent selection for a reading group discussion because of the opposing forces that are always at work within the novel.

Armchair Interviews agrees: This is a 5-star read.

Author’s Web site: http://www.LailaLalami.com