The Dangerous Neighborhood

Mohammed Benmiloud  |  The AFAC Novel Writing Program  |  2015  |  Morocco
The novel is set in the dangerous neighborhood of Abi Roqraq, located on the outskirts of the city of Rabat. On one rainy day, a baby boy is born. He is meant to live an action-packed life in a neighborhood full of shanty houses. The only wide road in the neighborhood is a soil road that gets muddy in winter time, and becomes slipper and sinuous leading toward the Abi Roqraq River. On the muddy river bank, the novel’s hero Rachid spends his childhood playing with his peers from the dangerous shanty neighborhood. He lives completely isolated from the bigger world outside his neighborhood. A single son, Rachid grows up in this neighborhood, where he lives a life packed with problems and adventures