review book

La Boîte à merveilles is an autobiographical 1954 novel by Moroccan writer Ahmed Sefrioui. It was written in 1952, and was the first Moroccan novel written in the French language. The novel presents a slice of life within the context of North African Francophone literature of the century.


Summary
The novel is a series of tableaux describing the daily life of a regular family in the city of Fès. It serves more as an album to represent the thoughts of the narrator; the reader is merely turning the pages. The novel covers three seasons of the year and explores Moroccan society, way of life, traditions, rituals, and worldview at the beginning of the 20th century in an attempt to explain what it means to be a Moroccan.