The African Shore

August 5, 2013
Set in Tangier, Guatemalan Rey Rosa’s (The Good Cripple) spare novella evokes the work of his mentor Paul Bowles. Loosely interweaving the stories of Hamsa, a Moroccan shepherd preparing himself to serve as a lookout for a smuggling operation run by his uncle, and of a Colombian tourist (not named until the end), who, having lost his passport during a night of drunken debauchery, finds himself stuck in Morocco, the book is thin on plot and thick on atmosphere. Like that stranded traveler, who occupies most of the storyline, the narrative is content to meander, seemingly refusing action and appearing to take pleasure in passivity. The two strands of the work coalesce around an owl, impulsively purchased by the tourist and sought after by Hamsa, who believes that the bird’s plucked out eyes will work as an amulet should the job his uncle promises materialize. Less a conventional novel, more an episodic exploration of ennui, superstition, and the intersection of cultures—European, Latin American, Arab—that takes place on the eponymous shore, the book is strangely hypnotic. Quietly mesmerizing and unfolding with no discernible pattern, it builds to a simple closing note. Gray’s unadorned translation, keeping many of the regional exclamations intact, lets the narrative shine, demonstrating why Rey Rosa’s reputation has been growing internationally.

September 1, 2013

After a night of carousing, an unnamed Colombian tourist in Morocco loses his passport. His friends return to Cali while the protagonist wanders through Tangiers enjoying life in an aimless manner. A second strand of this short enigmatic novel follows a young Moroccan shepherd, who becomes ill and is cared for by his grandmother. The two stories seem to have no relationship to each other with the exception of an owl with a broken wing that both the tourist and the shepherd care for at different times. Only in the last few pages does everything suddenly come together in a stunning climax. VERDICT Paul Bowles, who was an expatriate in Morocco for 52 years, mentored Rey Rosa, and this novel draws on Bowles's masterpiece of expat literature The Sheltering Sky. The astonishing manner in which Rey Rosa weaves the various threads of the story into an amazing whole is brilliant. This is not an easy book, but lovers of beautiful, challenging novellas such as those of Jorges Luis Borges or Italo Calvino will definitely enjoy it.--Andrea Kempf, formerly with Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS

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