Pariahs - Paperback

by Mbarek Ould Beyrouk (Author), Marjolijn de Jager (Translator)

Writing letters to his deceased wife from the confines of a prison cell, a father reflects romantically on their life together and the free-spirited nomadic life that they enjoyed in their youth; while his son, left to fend for himself in an increasingly hostile and modernized urban environment falls into petty crime and gang life in the hardscrabble slum districts of Mauritania's capital city.

Author Biography

Author Mbarek Ould Beyrouk is a French -speaking Mauritanian writer born in 1957 in Atar . Writing under the name, Beyrouk, he is a journalist and author of three novels and a collection of short stories. In 2016 he received the Ahmadou-Kourouma prize for his novel The Drum of Tears as well as the Prix du roman métis des lycéens . Mbarek Ould Beyrouk studied law at the University of Rabat but then turned to journalism. After working for the official media, in 1988 he founded the country's first independent newspaper, Mauritanie Demain. He then became a member of the High Authority for the Press and Audiovisual, created in 2006. He was also appointed in 2016 adviser to the presidency of the republic by former Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz.