Book Review: La Prisonniere by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi


   I've always been fascinated by stories like these. Stories about women who really went through stuff that would break anyone and still survived against all odds. Stories set in parts of the world I'd only heard about. Sure, Google images helps but nothing beats a narration of first hand experience. Stories like Arthur Golden's 'Memoirs of a geisha' which I read as a teenager. This book firmly falls into this category.

   La Prissonniere caught my attention because of the title.  It's the way I'm drawn to all things French. The book details the imprisonment of Malika Oufkir, her five siblings and their mother in the Moroccan desert for 20 years because her father staged a failed coup attempt against the then Moroccan king.  The oldest was 18 years while the youngest was just 3 years old.  Talk  about sins of the father! All this despite the fact that she had practically been raised as a princess in the king's household. The descriptions of Morrocco are so detailed that you can see everything in your mind's eye. I really would recommend this book to anyone with curiosity about Morocco in the 60s and 70s.
Ciao....

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