Ahmed was born into a family in which languages and recipes mix: potato and mussel rice and taralli coexist with couscous and baklawa, just as Italian and Tunisian are mixed in discussions between parents and children. But his is also a family that hides shadows: Taoufik is an often violent father, capable of forcing the protagonist to give up his childhood and yet also capable, in a disorienting short-circuit, of outbursts of love and tenderness. When, now an adult, Ahmed joins him in the hospital, he initiates a dialogue with him made all the more urgent by his illness. The protagonist recalls his own turbulent life, from trips to Tunisia to the trauma of circumcision, from the privilege of being the most beloved son to the painful discovery of his own homosexuality, from market days in Andria to Erasmus in Tunis as an opportunity to confront his roots. Baba, Mohamed Maalel’s debut novel, is an unscripted story about multiculturalism, identity and bonds. A long confession to a father to whom one could not fully show oneself for who one is, it is an intense and sometimes ruthless tale in which the re-enactment of violence is accompanied by a moving desire for understanding and redemption. (Source: Ibs.co.uk)
is a freelance journalist
