Marrakech

Fiction

The Spider’s House, Paul Bowles, 2006
Bowles spent many years traveling before settling in Tangiers in the late 1940’s. The Spider House, set in Fes is probably his best Moroccan book.

Larabi’s Ox: Stories of Morocco, Tony Ardizzone, 1992
These interwoven short stories focus on three Americans visiting Morocco for the first time.

Lulu in Marrakech, Diane Johnson, 2008
The author of Le Divorce sends another of her American ingénue characters into a foreign culture.

The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles, 1949
Alienated Americans travel to Africa to escape despair but find it follows them wherever they travel.

Nonfiction

A Year in Marrakech, Peter Mayne, 2003
Mayne spent much of his life in India and Pakistan before moving to Marrakech. Here he describes everyday life in the city.

Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood, Fatima Mernissi, 1994
Mernissi was born in a harem in 1940 in Fex and her story and that of the women she grew up around reveals a rich and confounding culture.

Hideous Kinky, Esther Freud, 1992
Freud travelled to Morocco in the Sixties at the age of five with her hippy mother and this evocative book covers her travels.

Cooking at the Kasbah, Kitty Morse, 1998
The basic techniques of Moroccan cooking and Moroccan eating rituals.

Good Food from Morocco, Paula Wolfert, 1990
Having lived in Morocco for two years Wolfert brings together traditional Moroccan recipes.

A House in Fez, Suzanna Clark, 2008
Clarke pens a poignant account of a year spent restoring an ancient riad in Fes. Read a QA with the authorIn Morocco, Edith Wharton, 1919—The acclaimed writer’s muses on her travels in the country just after World War II.

Lords of the Atlas, Gavin Maxwell, 2004
A fascinating historical account of two warlord brothers and the rise and fall of the House of Glaoua.

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail, Malika Oufki, 1999
The incredible memoir of a woman who was raised with one of the royal Moroccan princesses only to be imprisoned in a desert jail after her father’s failed attempted coup d’etat. The book reads like a suspense thriller and paints a vivid picture of life under a mercurial dictator.

The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca, Tahir Shah, 2006
In the style of Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in Provence, The Caliph’s House recounts a year in the life of Shah’s family and their adventures—and experience in a supposedly haunted house—throughout Morocco.

Design/Style

Living in Morocco, Lisl & Landt Dennis, 2001
This gorgeous book about Moroccan design focuses on the country’s distinctive arts, style and culture.

Marrakesh by Design, Maryam Montague, 2012
The stylish ex-pat captures the city’s famous sense of style in images and essays. Read a QA with the author.

Shopping in Marrakech, Susan Simon, 2009
This great shopping guide provides colorful maps and plots walks to help you organize a jaunt.

Films

The Sheltering Sky, Bernardo Bertolucci, 1990
In a gorgeous drama based on Paul Bowles’ famous 1949 novel, alientated American artists Kit and Port Moresby (Debra Winger, John Malkovich) travel to Africa to escape despair – but find it follows them wherever they travel.

Casablanca, Michael Curtiz, 1942
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman are star-crossed lovers dodging sharp one-liners and bullets in North Africa during the early days of WWII. It is considered by many to be the best American movie romance – men fall for Ingrid; women for Humphrey. Discussed in When Harry Met Sally, it becomes a Rosetta stone for Billy Crystal’s and Meg Ryan’s mutual feelings.

BabelAlejandro González Iñárritu, 2006
Unhappily wed Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett take a second honeymoon to North Africa; when a sniper’s bullet penetrates her shoulder, that random act becomes the locus of interlocking stories set in Japan, America and Mexico as well.

Hideous Kinky, Gillies MacKinnon, 1998
The film version of Esther Freud’s memoir stars Kate Winslet; large parts of it were shot on location in Marrakech.

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