Désert (novel)

Desert

First English edition (US)
Author	J. M. G. Le Clézio
Original title	Désert
Country	France
Language	French
Publisher	Gallimard David R. Godine (US)
Publication date	6 May 1980
Published in English	2009
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	410 pp
ISBN
OCLC	15090765

Désert is a novel written by French Nobel laureate writer J. M. G. Le Clézio, considered to be one of his breakthrough novels. It won the Académie française's Grand Prix Paul Morand in 1980.

Two stories are interwoven. The shorter, which begins and ends the book, is specifically set in 1910–1912 and tells of the last uprising of the desert tribes against the French protectorate of Morocco, mostly as observed by a small boy, Nour. The longer, the story of Lalla, is set in an indefinite time, but obviously after the Second World War. It describes her early life in a Shanty "city" on the edge of an unnamed Moroccan coastal town, and particularly her friendship with "the Hartani" who, like her, originates from the desert tribes. It narrates the time she spends in Marseilles and her eventual return to the shanty city, where she gives birth to the Hartani's child.

Le Clezio's constant travels are reflected in the settings of his books and his definitive breakthrough as a novelist came with "Desert" (1980), for which he received a prize from the French Academy. This work contained images of a lost culture in the North African desert, contrasting with a depiction of Europe seen through the eyes of unwanted immigrants

Le Clezio received the Académie française's Grand Prix Paul Morand in 1980 for Désert, a novel that revealed a move towards a more expansive and lyrical style. The book has a dual narrative. The first, dated 1909–1910, chronicles the tragic fate of a Tuareg clan fleeing across Morocco from their French and Spanish colonial oppressors ("les Chretiens"). There are fine evocations of the unforgiving desert: "They crossed the mountains for days. The burning wind blew in the ravines. The blue sky was immense above the red rocks. There was no one here, neither man nor beast, just occasionally the trace of a serpent in the sand, or, very high up in the sky, the shadow of a vulture". The second narrative follows Lalla, a beautiful, fearless, young Moroccan girl who lands in an intimidating Marseilles, where she endures abuse and hardship before being taken up by a fashion photographer. As in Poisson d'or (1997), the story of a young girl's odyssey from Morocco to Los Angeles, Le Clezio's imaginative empathy is put to good effect.