The Magical Introduction to Morocco from the books we read before & during our Moroccan trip.

Over the years, Les & I have been so lucky with travel! After Les joined an international group of Certified Public Accountants in the late 1990s, we traveled all over the globe, hosted in many different countries by members who became good friends. We sang folk songs on a Swedish Archipelago boat tour, rode camels & visited the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, experienced New Zealand by helicopter & car, & celebrated a new century in London. And during the 15 years we were with the group, it was so easy to hit a few more areas on our bucket list. All in all, we've visited 81 countries, some of them as add-ons, some of them ancestry quests, but others just because we wanted to experience yet another culture. Obviously, we were hooked on travel!

We have always wanted to go to Morocco. Even though it was a quick trip across the Mediterranean from our house in southern France, we never got there. It's just TOO HOT in the summer these days. When it was 105 in Villevieille, it was 140 in Morocco. Once we sold that house, we put Morocco on the top of our bucket list. We finally got there on April 26, 2023. The weather was PERFECT!

With many travel experiences we've realized the importance of reading about each country's history & culture before we go & while we are there. This time we hit the jackpot with books that really set us up for a wonderful experience. Some were historical novels, some were travelogues, some were ancient stories by storytellers. All the books were all based in different time frames & focused on different cities, & each of the writers had a different style. Here's a list of what I thought were the most helpful, in a somewhat coherent time frame.

Leo Africanus: A Muslim traveler's account of his life in the 15th-16th c, from the fall of Grenada to the wreck of Rome in the 16th c. Well-researched, flowing prose, & captivating writing style. A REAL story that gave us a new look at the medieval world, & Morocco's place in it. At one time, Morocco covered Spain, Portugal & northern Africa, down to Sudan when Moroccans, intending to revive the trans-Saharan trade in salt and gold, invaded in 1591.

The Spider's House (2006), by Paul Bowles: Set in Fez, during the 1954 movement of liberation of Morocco from the French Protectorate, this book helps you understand the people in the Middle East & North Africa. The main character is an illiterate but devout & deep-thinking Muslim teenage boy, caught in a "spider web" of rebellion. As the story unfolds, you watch Fez "boil" as a revolutionary group decides to take on the French controlled government.

A Year in Marrakesh, (2003) by Peter Mayne: After living in India & Pakistan in the mid '50s, writer Peter Mayne intends to make Marrakesh his home, & support his life there funded by writing a book about living there. Taken from his personal journals , he writes about his somewhat nomadic life in Marrakesh, & is accepted by locals, learns Arabic, & makes an assortment of new friends. After being there, I can understand how this could happen in a gentle & loving country like Morocco. The people there are wonderful!

A House in Fez, by Suzanna Clarke: This 2008 book recounts the purchase & restoration of a medieval riad in Fez, our favorite city in Morocco. Suzanna is Australian, & she & her partner face all kinds of difficulties with permits, builders & neighbors, but they learn to adjust & adapt to an ancient & endearing culture. Having rehabbed in the US & France, I identified with her frustrations & joys. Just buying a toilet was a huge adventure. While strolling through the Fez Medinah, I kept thinking of her many stories, & the people who befriended her.

Lulu in Marrakesh, by Diane Johnson: The heroine of this story lives in 2 worlds: as an undercover CIA spy tracing the flow of money to radical Islamic groups while living with her entrepreneur English lover. It's an interesting story, highlighting the contrasts within this country for both Moroccans & Europeans who live there somewhat together.

Adventures in Morocco, by Alice Morrison: Alice, a real-life marathon runner, takes on the challenge of competing in the Marathon des Sables, a 6-day marathon across the Sahara desert. To prepare for this ordeal, she moves to Morocco to train for the marathon, & eventually decides to stay. It's a travelogue that takes you from the desert to the mountains, & a lot of other cities & places in between. We enjoyed her travelogue, & her insights on the cities we were going to visit, as well as those we weren't. it's very current. (BTW, we never got to the desert!)

The Storyteller of Casablanca, by Fiona Valpy (j2021): We listened to this book, & it captivated us. It's set in one house in Casablanca in 2 different time frames: one 1941, under the Nazi threat, the other in 2011, well after the French left control. The WWII heroine is a 12 year old Jewish refugee named Josie. The more current heroine is Zoe, an English ex-pat living in the same house & struggling with her marriage, her baby, & her new life in a very foreign place. The story is told by both Josie & Zoe, through each person's diary entries, & kept us totally spellbound. We learned about the many French Jewish & other refugees during the Nazi occupation, as well as the large & important current businesses based in Casablanca, the cosmopolitan city where we started our Moroccan adventure.

Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood, by Fatima Mernissa: (1995)
While in Morocco, we learned how Moroccan women have expanded their freedoms in the last 20 years, through new laws & fewer restrictions. This book was a last-minute purchase that I read on our car journey from Fez to Marrakesh. Super timing, after seeing so many lovely Moroccan women everywhere we went, many of them unveiled, many still veiled. Fatima, even as a young girl growing up in a Fez harem during the Pro-Reform era, understands the constraints of being a woman, & narrates the joys & sorrows of her life behind the walls. She talks of the harem as a "sacred space", but at times she becomes, with the help of a few far-thinking women, somewhat feminist & even radical. She talks about the books she reads, & the differences between Western "Civilization" & Eastern "Primitivism". I loved her stories of the "Harem Family", & the activities created within it that brought so much joy & wisdom to this young woman.

Marrakesh Express, by Peter Millar (2014): Another last-minute purchase via Kindle, I finished this final travelogue on the airplane trip back to the US. Peter looks at Morocco through a Hippy-era-travel-journalist's eye. Inspired by the song recorded by Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1969, Peter narrates a number of journeys (often by train) within Morocco, supplying all kinds of "little gems" about each place he visits. With his casual witty style & his love of beer, I found it a super wrap-up of the cities we visited & even those we missed.

Each one of these books helped us understand & appreciate the uniqueness of Morocco. It's like a hypen between 2 worlds: the Euro/Christian one we've embraced all our lives, & the African/Muslim world on the other side of the Mediterranean.