The Storyteller of Marrakesh

Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

Tranquebar Press,

341 pages, R495

Each year, the storyteller Hassan gathers listeners in Marrakesh’s fabled city square to share their recollections of the night when a young foreign couple disappeared. But his listeners offer contradictory testimonies, and details transform or dissolve in the haze of memory. This novel captures the bustling maze of the ancient medina and the expansive “desert of love”.