M'hashish

"Ah," said Hassan, "I don't believe in the world. There's another world where life is different."

These are stories of that world. The word m'hashish (equivalent in Moghrebi of "behashished" or "full of hashish") is used only in a literal sense, but also figuratively, to describe a person whose behavior seems irrational or unexpected. The tales here deal with some of the possible results, desirable and questionable, of being in that state.

Mohammed Mrabet was born in Tangier around 1940. Since 1965, Paul Bowles has taped and translated numerous strange legends and lively stories recounted by Mrabet: Love with a Few Hairs (novel), The Lemon (novel), The Boy Who Set Fire (stories), Harmless Poisons, Blameless Sins (stories), The Beach Café & Look & Move On (autobiography), and The Big Mirror (novella).