In the Country of Others

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice One of NPR ’ s Best Books of the Year Named a Best Book of the Summer by Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, BuzzFeed, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Town & Country, Observer, The Millions, and Parade Winner of the Grand Prix de l’Héroïne Madame Figaro, awarded by France ’ s oldest national daily newspaper to the best novel featuring a female protagonist Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence “Slimani has made a career out of catching readers on the wrong foot with unsparing prose. . . . In the Country of Others is [her] most personal book yet.” — The New York Times “Slimani writes motherhood like no one else. . . . [She] handles Mathilde’s evolution elegantly. . . . In Sam Taylor’s seamless, poetic translation, Slimani masterfully captures these nuanced shifts [among French, Alsatian, Arabic, and Berber]. . . . In the Country of Others . . . lays bare women’s intimate, lacerating experience of war and its consequent trauma.” ― The New York Times Book Review “A beautifully written portrait of both a country and a family trying to establish their identities in the midst of immense turmoil.” ― NPR “A satisfying if infuriating look at how power works in the struggle for independence, both personal and political. . . . Dynamic female characters dominate the book. . . . Slimani shines through the rise and fall of tension in her novels. Her willowy prose is dense with emotional depth and insight, and blunt observations elucidate every scene with force. . . . [Her] prose . . . is stunning.” ― The Boston Globe “Slimani excels at telling this wide-ranging story, expertly folding themes of love, loss, alienation, gender, and belonging into a complex narrative set against the backdrop of World War II.” ― Vogue “Nuanced and elegantly written.” ― Ms. Magazine “Wonderfully imagined . . . A compelling exploration of the past . . . [Slimani] works her dangerous magic on her own family history. . . . [She] has an instinct for whichever detail will deliver the strongest electric shock. . . . It will be fascinating to see how the rest [of the trilogy] unfolds.” ― Tessa Hadley, The Guardian “A panoramic, ambitious tale . . . A big leap forward from an already established writer . . . It will leave anyone who reads it quietly thrilled at the thought of what its author might do next.” ― The Times (London) “As wild and lush as a wildflower meadow . . . It will be fascinating to see what the next installment brings.” ― The Observer (London) “Thrums with nervous energy . . . Slimani excels at evoking this time and place. Readers will end the first volume of the trilogy with high expectations for the next.” ― The Economist “A thought-provoking, touching story.” ― Town & Country “Slimani has never shied away from complicated aspects of human nature. . . . A story about the complexities of interracial marriage in the 1940s, womanhood in an intensely patriarchal society, and the Moroccan struggle for independence from French colonial rule.” ― The Cut “A portrait of both a country and a family trying to establish their identities in the midst of immense turmoil.” ― NPR’s Code Switch “Slimani is a doggedly unsentimental writer. . . . Even with its brutality, I felt compelled to keep reading and eagerly await the next book.” — Tomi Obaro, BuzzFeed “A strikingly fresh and vivid novel, free of the stale affectation that permeates lesser historical fiction . . . [A] gripping novel whose personal struggles mirror those of Morocco’s fight for independence.” ― Observer (New York) “An unabashedly feminist novel of outsiders . . . Parallels with Paul Scott’s famed Raj Quartet are evident, as the personal and political journeys are inextricably intertwined. . . . Emotionally sat­isfying.” ― BookPage, starred review “[Slimani has] a genius for empathy, an ability to translate experiences, and an understanding of what’s important to leave in and what’s crucial to leave out. . . . Asking what it means to exist between cultures, and how we negotiate the ever-shifting complexities of privilege and identity, [ In the Country of Others] acknowledges that such questions are as far from abstract as imaginable, and as intimate as the marriage bed.” ― The Millions “The beautiful, evocative writing draws you in . . . and keeps you there until the last page.” ― Daily Express “Powerful . . . Slimani creates an immersive and stunningly realized fictional world and ratchets up the tension as the novel moves toward its climax.” ― The Scotsman “A multi-layered, nuanced book, with moments of humor and a lot to empathize with. I look forward to the next instalment.” ― Susannah Butter, Evening Standard “The novel’s brilliance is in its unconventional portrayal of its characters’ contradictions, restlessness, uneasy alliances . . . Striking.” ― The Tablet (London) “[A] sharp and nuanced critique of patriarchy . . . A novel of the heart concerning race and the struggle for personal and s