In the Country of Others: A Novel

"Freedom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. That’s one of the lessons from Leila Slimani’s latest family epic; her characters are desperate to forge lives of their own, but as they do, they learn that the trade-off for their independence is security, community, even happiness. The story takes place in Morocco in the 1940s and 1950s, during the fight for independence from France. It’s a beautifully written portrait of both a country and a family trying to establish their identities in the midst of immense turmoil."