Author: Abdellah Taia

Title: Salvation Army

It is an autobiographical novel and translated from French. The story starts in a poverty stricken town in Morocco where Taia spent his childhood, bound by family order and latent sexual tensions. As a young adult, he falls for an older man who introduces him to Europe, the possibility of leaving home and leaving its repressive social mores behind.

• The group members thought the book was about Taia at a moment of transition between being a nice Moroccan boy and that of an adult. He was one of nine children in the family.
• This book is also about poverty and sexual tourism and its benign and cruel side. Money is an obsession in a poor country such as Morocco where the average wage is minuscule and a man feels like a man only when he can bring home a basket full of vegetables and meat.
• It was interesting read, allowing the reader to travel through places such as Morocco, Geneva, Switzerland.