โPoetically depicts a Bedouin boyโs extended coming of age and the uneasy navigation of his transition from provincial Syria to the West.โ โPublishers Weekly
ย
Published to wide critical acclaim in France,ย Badawiย is Mohed Altradโs heartrending debut novel, inspired by the authorโs own narrative arc from Bedouin orphan to engineer and finally billionaire businessman.
ย
In the Syrian desert, a young boy watches as his mother dies. She was a repudiated woman, abandoned by the boyโs powerful father, leaving Maรฏouf to his scornful grandmother. She wants Maรฏouf to carry on Bedouin tradition as a shepherd. But from the first time he sneaks off to the white-walled schoolhouse to watch the other children learn, Maรฏouf envisions a different future for himself.
ย
This is one extraordinary childโs story of fighting for an educationโand a lifeโhe was never supposed to have, from a tiny desert village to the city of Raqqa, from the university halls of Montpellier on to the oil fields of Abu Dhabi. With each step forward, Maรฏouf feels the love of his youthโa steadfast young Syrian woman named Fadiaโand the shifting, haunted sands of his native village pulling him back toward the past he thought he had left behind.
ย
โIn this tale of a boy caught between worlds, Altrad brings a sparse, lyrical quality to his prose that at times verges on the poetic.โ โLos Angeles Review of Books