Hot Maroc هـوت ماروك

When asked about his first novel, Yassin Adnan said:

"The novel is about Morocco and the changes this country is going through. It is about Marrakesh and the changes in the city, for example the decision to sacrifice the trees and plants to urban renewal. It is about the university and student mobility. It is about the decay of the culture of debate on the Internet and about cutting digital connections. The novel’s protagonist is Rahal Laouina, a shy and cowardly young man who attacks others only from the anonymity of the Internet.

I gave the characters animal features. Each protagonist has traits that are usually attributed to an animal. It is an “animal comedy,” but its heroes are people of flesh and blood with real feelings. It is also an “electronic comedy,” because part of the adventure and events takes place on the World Wide Web, mainly on Facebook.

Hot Maroc is a contemporary novel that also observes the social milieu and artistically grapples with its problems. It is an urban novel about Marrakesh, where local and international traditions intermingle. It reveals the Marrakesh of the middle class, people who deal with the old city and the tourism centre. But the novel also shows the Marrakesh of the slums that grow larger every day. It is about a city to which new people move year after year and in which life is becoming ever more difficult."

The above interview was conducted by Kersten Knipp, and is published on the Goethe Institut website.