Our final book review in June looks back at Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s The Actual True Story of Ahmed & Zarga, published in February from Ohio University Press’s Modern African Writing Series. Reviewer Peter Dziedzic writes that the novel “offers a fablelike perspective on humans’ relationships with the environment through a journey into West African Bedouin culture.” Read the full review at the link below:
Many today experience a strong disconnect between their daily lives and the natural world which surrounds them. In The Actual True Story of Ahmed & Zarga, Mauritanian author Mohamedou Ould Slahi—with editorial assistance from Larry Siems—offers a fablelike perspective on humans’ relationships with the environment through a journey into West African Bedouin culture. Well-known for his Guantánamo Diary, which documented his experience being held in the military prison without charge, this is Slahi’s debut novel. Inspired by his father’s stories and his own experience growing up among Mauritanian camel herders, Slahi tells a captivating tale of one man’s search for his prized camel and his reckoning with tradition, duty faith, and death along the way.
