Spare and intense story of friendship and envy and the unresolved complexities of growing older. I have great admiration for authors who just tell a story without thought of marketing or standards or categories. ( )

In 1950s Morocco, schoolboy Ali meets Mamet (Mohammed) for the first time after a school yard fight. Their personalities and views on life could not be further apart. They are opposite in every way. Mamet has to fight every aspect of his life: rebelling against the Communist party sexually; betraying his religion with food and drink; ignoring his culture by committing adultery. To compensate for feeling inferior he is full of unnecessary bravado. Yet, their differences make them curious friends. Best friends at that. Without knowing it, they protect each other time and time again. Over the span of thirty years and many trials and tribulations, their relationship deepens into a profound bond; one even their wives find hard to accept. It is as if Ali and Mamet's separate relationships orbit around their singular connection. Despite moving apart Ali and Mamet remain close until a misunderstanding and an even larger betrayal comes between them. ( )

4.5 Tangiers, 1950's and Ali and Mamet meet at school for the first time. Although they are very different they become fast friends, a friendship that will last thirty years. They separate when they go to different colleges, Mamet wants to be a doctor and Ali studies film, but they meet in the summers back in Tangiers. Their friendship, will be forever cemented when they are picked up for subversive activities, sent to a work camp, where they will labor for 18 months.

This is a novel about a remarkable friendship. When I first started reading I thought this might be another book about boys acting badly, sexual scenes and thoughts, drinking etc. The setting of Morocco kept me reading, I had not read many books set there before. So glad I did because this book is so much more. The culture, the politics of the country, the medical situation in both Morocco and Sweden, marriage and infidelity and ultimately a staged betrayal. But who was the betrayer and what was the reason behind it?

We hear from Ali, and then Mamet and finally Ramon, a friend of theirs that they had kept in contact with from their school days. He does play a integral part of this story.

This turned into a very emotional read for me, what a wonderful journey it was. The extra half star is for the last paragraph of the book, it summed it all up perfectly and left me teary eyed. ( )

Ali and Mamed are close friends, their friendship starts at school where the first meet and lasts thirty years or more, but then something goes wrong that sours that friendship. Until then they have stuck together through adversities, their marriages, and separation as both and later one moves away from Morocco to another country.

Ali provides an account of their friendship and what goes wrong, this is followed by Mamed's account; a friend they share provides another view of their problems, and the last word lies with the letter from one friend to the other.

While the closeness and depth of this friendship is described in both accounts, the book somehow fails to convey any real feeling. Could it be that something has been lost in the translation, or perhaps the way such matters are viewed by different cultures? Whatever the reason I was left a little cold when what I was hoping for was an involving and moving story of close friendship. ( )

Livre émouvant. Une amitié décrite différemment par les 2 amis. ( )