Hafid Bouazza

Hafid Bouazza (1970-2021) made a striking entry into Dutch literature with his collection of short stories De voeten van Abdullah (Abdulah’s Feet, 1996), which earned him the E. du Perron Prize. Bouazza’s lyrical style harks back to the expressionist poetry of the early twentieth century as well as the fairytales of The Thousand and One Nights. In 2001 Bouazza wrote the Dutch National Book Week Essay, Een beer in bontjas (A Bear in a Fur Coat), in which he made short work of the label Moroccan-Dutch writer: ‘Someone who walks with a slipper on one foot and a wooden clog on the other, and that’s not easy.’ He further published the novel Salomon (1998) and the novella Momo (2001), and he caused a stir with his translations of classical Arabic texts and of plays by Shakespeare and Marlowe. Paravion (2003) was awarded the Flemish Golden Owl Award.

Abdulah’s Feet

(Prometheus, 1996, 136 pages)

Hafid Bouazza is a self-assured writer with an exuberant style. His tendency to decorate the world with words and his refusal to do so with moderation are no mere quirks. This man has the subject, the palette and the flamboyant hand of a painter. In each of the eight stories a game is played with tradition. They are almost all set in the writer’s motherland and depict the waning power of the time-honoured authorities.

Paravion

(Prometheus, 2003, 220 pages)

Hafid Bouazza’s Paravion is like an Arab fairy tale in its composition, poetic and exotic, but its theme is rooted in the current social reality of the emigrant. ‘Baba Balook and his wife had kept his upcoming journey secret from everyone, lest backbiting and catastrophe – the evil eye – should befall them but it was to no avail.’

Author

Hafid Bouazza

Abdulah’s Feet

Paravion

Translations