Click Here To Purchase The House in Morocco

Author: Rosalind Brackenbury

ISBN: 1-902881-76-1

Publisher: The Toby Press LLC 

Rosalind Brackenbury, author of The House in Morocco was born in London and grew up in the south of England. She has lived in Scotland, France and now lives in Key West, Florida with her American husband. She has published ten novels and four collections of poetry.

The House in Morocco is a richly textured narrative and it adeptly captures our attention. Brackenbury is a wordsmith playing with language like a real virtuoso violin player. The house in Morocco is akin to a poem in that its words are carefully chosen and orchestrated.

The common threads in The House in Morocco are a few thoughts by Marion, the absent mother of the principal protagonist, Sarah Henderson:

“Memory lies at the bottom of a well. But it does not disappear… You only lose the rope.” Equipped with these two clues, Sarah Henderson, an American and a journalist by profession, sets out to find this “friend” of her mother’s in Morocco as well as the missing pieces of her memory. 

After breaking up with her reporter boyfriend in France, she travels to Essaouira, the Mogador of the forties.  She rents a room in a former brothel that is under renovation.

The author skillfully seats the reader into the atmosphere by describing the seaside resort in winter, the Arab food specialties and smells, and by throwing in some Arabic and French words.  She expertly describes their way of life, women’s condition in a society governed by men, racism experienced by Moroccans who still feel the dictature of the French colonials. In addition, Brackenbury touches on the greed of developers who want to change the idyllic landscape into a crass money making seaside resort. Racism is also another inherent subject wherein the Arabs still feel subservient to the old colonizer, France.

The cast of characters are Yann, a blue eyes French philanderer, former lover of Aisha, a fierce Berber woman and father (out of wedlock) of her daughter, Souad;

Aziz, a Moroccan born in France and owner of a windsurfing store;  Omar, Nick, Sacha and Antoine the developer as well as her friend Suzanne and her husband Cherif close the cast of characters.

Sarah, a “liberated” American woman is sought after by all the men in the house with the blue door.  But, she is only attracted to Aziz, the windsurfer.  Their romance begins with a horseback ride on the beach. This chapter is one of the most descriptive and poetic of the whole book. It is so realistic that I believe the author must be a rider herself to describe this experience with such alacrity.

The torrid affair continues under the watchful eyes of all the tenants of the house with the blue door.  Will history repeat itself? Just like her mother Marion, will Sarah leave her lover and return to America?  Will Sarah find her mother’s lover?

Anyone who wants to find out more about Morocco would do well to read this wonderful summer reading. You will find the descriptions in The House in Morocco a real treat, even if the characters are a bit sketchy.