The Storyteller of Marrakesh

by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya Narrated by Gerard Kyle

Overview

Each year, the storyteller, Hassan, gathers listeners to the city square to share their recollections of a young, foreign couple who mysteriously disappeared years earlier. As various witnesses describe their encounters with the couple, Hassan hopes to light upon the details that will explain what happened to them, and to absolve his own brother, who is in prison for their disappearance. But is this annual storytelling ritual a genuine attempt to uncover the truth, or is it intended instead to weave and ambiguous mythology around a crime? The first in an ambitious cycle of novels set in the Islamic world, The Storyteller of Marrakesh is an elegant exploration of the nature of reality and our shifting perceptions of truth.

Editorial Reviews

Anderson Tepper

…an enigmatic fable in the tradition of The Thousand and One Nights, an extended examination of its own narrative powers in which the stories within the stories come to resemble an intricate, miniaturist design…Roy-Bhattacharya…has clearly immersed himself in the richness of Moroccan life and history. It makes a lively home for his questing imagination.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

The disappearance of a pair of tourists from Marrakesh's famous Jemaa el Fna is at the heart of Roy-Bhattacharya's misguided American debut, the first volume in a projected series. Hassan, a storyteller who makes his living on the square, begins his tale of the missing tourists, but as his version clashes with his gathered listeners' memories, they take over the narrative. The result is a muddle of contradicting details, minor characters relating portentous dreams, long digressions into largely unnecessary backstories, and swaths of overripe prose from which it emerges that Hassan's brother is in prison because of the disappearance, and that while Hassan believes in his brother's innocence, others think Hassan's tales are just an attempt to weave "a mythology around a crime" that itself remains vague. These heavily underlined questions about the nature of truth unfortunately end up being little more than posturing: in the end, one authoritative account trumps all others. The most surprising thing about this literary mystery set in the medina of Marrakesh is how dull it manages to be. (Jan.)

From the Publisher

Editor's Choice. "An enigmatic fable in the tradition of The Thousand and One Nights." - The New York Times

"[A] broad, discursive, plausible, and often beguiling presentation of a contemporary Islamic culture little changed by centuries, geopolitics, globalization or religious enmity. Roy-Battacharya’s descriptive powers are acute, and Marrakesh, the Djemaa, the Sahara, and the High Atlas Mountains are vividly rendered through all the senses. In a time when tensions between Islam and the West are fevered, The Storyteller of Marrakesh offers an agreeable change of pace." - Booklist

"Steeped in the ambiance of Marrakesh, this exotic metafictional tale marks Roy-Bhattacharya’s U.S. debut and will appeal to readers of complex narratives by unreliable narrators. Lovers of mysteries with ambiguous endings will also enjoy this novel." - Library Journal

"...a mosaic of stories winningly delivered by Gerard Kyle. Kyle’s facility with portraying nationality and gender makes his narration a delight. He juggles dozens of characters, as well as Roy-Bhattacharya’s elevated language, with a profound elegance." - AudioFile Magazine

Richmond Examiner - Russ Mayes

"A multilayered novel that juxtaposes the artistry of narration with a collision of cultures in the Jemaa. . . . Lyrical."

Booklist

"[A] broad, discursive, plausible, and often beguiling presentation of a contemporary Islamic culture little changed by centuries, geopolitics, globalization or religious enmity. Roy-Battacharya’s descriptive powers are acute, and Marrakesh, the Djemaa, the Sahara, and the High Atlas Mountains are vividly rendered through all the senses. In a time when tensions between Islam and the West are fevered, The Storyteller of Marrakesh offers an agreeable change of pace."

The New York Times Book Review

"An enigmatic fable in the tradition of The Thousand and One Nights....[Roy-Bhattacharya] has clearly immersed himself in the richness of Moroccan life and history. It makes a lively home for his questing imagination."

Booklist - Thomas Gaughan

"Roy-Bhattacharya’s descriptive powers are acute, and Marrakesh, the Djemaa, the Sahara, and the High Atlas Mountains are vividly rendered through all the senses."

Library Journal

This tale about the disappearance of a beautiful foreigner one night in Marrakesh is told by Hassan, a traditional Moroccan storyteller. Hassan's brother Mustafa is in prison for this crime, and once a year, the storyteller tries to reconstruct the evening of her disappearance for his listeners. As he weaves his tale, people in the audience contribute their memories of the evening, many of them conflicting. Was the woman blond or dark-haired? Was she modest, or did she behave like a clueless foreigner? Each bit of evidence is like a piece of mosaic tile, creating an even more complex design. Each person's testimony adds to the creation of a mythic story that will be recounted for generations. And yet on a personal level, the retelling is Hassan's method of mythologizing his brother and keeping his memory alive. VERDICT The author's first novel, The Gabriel Club, which was published in 16 countries, was also somewhat of an unsolved mystery, told with multiple threads. Steeped in the ambience of Marrakesh, this exotic metafictional tale marks Roy-Bhattacharya's U.S. debut and will appeal to readers of complex narratives by unreliable narrators. Lovers of mysteries with ambiguous endings will also enjoy this novel. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/10.]—Andrea Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS

MARCH 2011 - AudioFile

The storyteller of the title, Hassan, “weaves a magic carpet of words” in this literary mystery set in the exotic locale of Marrakesh’s Jemaa el Fna—the central square filled with fortune-tellers, acrobats, and vendors. There Hassan recounts his tales each evening. As Hassan delves into a story of the disappearance of a foreign couple from the Jemaa, assisted and sometimes contradicted by the recollections of his rapt listeners, the book becomes a mosaic of stories winningly delivered by Gerard Kyle. Kyle’s facility with portraying nationality and gender makes his narration a delight. He juggles dozens of characters, as well as Roy-Bhattacharya’s elevated language, with a profound elegance. F.J.K. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175606417
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	01/31/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged

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