Driven by famine from their home in the Rif, Mohamed?s family walks to Tangiers in search of a better life. But things are no better there. Eight of Mohamed?s siblings die of malnutrition and neglect, and one is killed by his father in a fit of rage. On moving to another province Mohamed learns how to charm and steal, and discovers the joys of drugs, sex and alcohol. Proud, insolent and afraid of no-one, he returns to Tangiers, where he is caught up in the violence of the 1952 independence riots. It is here, during a short spell in a filthy Moroccan jail, that a fellow inmate kindles Mohamed?s life-altering love of literature.