I picked this little gem up at a used book sale. I originally picked it up because of the cover (yes, I will buy a book for the cover...) than I read the blurb from the book jacket:

Mahi Binebine’s courageous novel takes place in Morocco, where seven would-be immigrants gather one night near the Strait of Gibraltar to wait for a signal from a trafficker that it is time to cross. While they wait, their stories unfold.

So worth the 50 cents I paid for it.

The POV is from Aziz, a young man who travels with his cousin Reda. Both long for a better life. Aziz has been fortunate and is educated. However, dire circumstances put him on the path he finds himself. The other 5 people all have their own reasons to flee. We sit on the beach and learn their stories as they wait for the signal from out in the strait.

The writing is poignant through out

"...The world went on turning. No one bothered about us, it was as if we didn't exist, as if we'd never been born. So what did it matter if we were devoured here, or somewhere else, or on the open seas..."

"...as for the rest of my family, what had they done to be so utterly forgotten? They were buried in my mind like a handicap, sucked down to the depths of my conscience.....I had known from my earliest childhood that I was born at the wrong time, in the wrong place. I was a stranger among my kin, a soul forgotten by the heavens, lost in the mud."

A stunningly beautiful book-highly recommended. ( )