Reading Kilito for me has always been a kind of adventure. We normally speak of writing as an adventure, but Kilito dares his reader to travel with him, on a quest to override the boundaries between reality and fiction, between literary criticism and storytelling. The Clash of Images is a marvelous book. Its power lies in its ability to create a magical relation between storytelling and critical thought.

Elias Khoury

A moving, memoiristic short-story collection by a venerated Moroccan writer about growing up during a time of cultural upheaval.

The Clash of Images

Fiction by Abdelfattah Kilito

Translated from Arabic by Robyn Creswell

Abdelfattah Kilito’s The Clash of Images is a sweet, Borgesian mix of bildungsroman memoir, family history, short-story collection, fable, and literary criticism. Written in a graceful and charming style, Kilito’s story takes place in an unnamed coastal city of memories where a child experiences first-hand the cultural clash of text and image in a changing, modern society. The story unfolds in the medina, the msid (or Koranic school), the neighborhood hammam (or bathhouse), summer camp, and the local cinema––canished sites that inspire Kilito’s meditation and eulogy. In one chapter the child’s mother forbids her son to read comic books after a bad report card, and the author evokes Don Quixote’s niece, who tries to burn her uncle’s romances and save him from his insane quests. In another, he remembers the first time he saw an image of the Prophet Mohammed, in a French textbook, and the moment he showed the offending picture to his grandmother. The Clash of Images is a celebration of the pleasures of storytelling, a magic lantern that delicately reveals how the world of books intimately connects with the world outside their pages.

Paperback(published Sep, 29 2010)

ISBN
9780811218863
Price US
12.95
Price CN
16
Trim Size
5x7
Page Count
128
Portrait of Abdelfattah Kilito

Abdelfattah Kilito

Abdelfattah Kilito is a Moroccan author who has published several books in Arabic and French.

Reading Kilito for me has always been a kind of adventure. We normally speak of writing as an adventure, but Kilito dares his reader to travel with him, on a quest to override the boundaries between reality and fiction, between literary criticism and storytelling. The Clash of Images is a marvelous book. Its power lies in its ability to create a magical relation between storytelling and critical thought.

Elias Khoury