The Reading Room

The Moroccan Daughter is a quenching oasis in the current COVID-induced travel desert as Deborah Rodriguez leads us through the alleyways of the ancient medina of Fès and up into the remote Atlas Mountains with her pacy tale of family secrets, forbidden love and clashing cultures.

- Juliet Rieden

Family drama

The Moroccan Daughter by Deborah Rodriguez, Bantam

Protagonist Amina lives in Carmel, California and as the book opens is planning to return to her childhood home in Morocco for the wedding of sister Naziha. The two siblings currently inhabit very different worlds – Amina, free from the constraints of her strict childhood, wallowing in the freedom of the West, and Naziha the jewel in her father’s palatial home, preparing for her perfect-match nuptials.

But, as we soon discover, Amina’s visit is not just about her sister’s celebration. She has a secret life she must reveal to her father, and invites her best friend, hairdresser Charlie, and his mischievous grandmother, Bea, along for moral support.

Amina, you see, is married to Max and sees her future in the US, but how can she tell her father? When Max turns up unannounced, tensions hit fever pitch, and as we head into the heady, dusty streets and the stunning interiors of enticing Morocco, author Rodriguez keeps the family revelations coming thick and fast – and not just from Amina’s side.

Deborah Rodriguez always wanted to base a novel in Morocco and found the perfect storyline when a friend introduced her to her niece from Rabat, now living in the US. “She told me about what it was like growing up as a girl in Morocco, about her strong family ties, her marriage to an American and her experiences going home. Her father was the director of a prison and she lived on the grounds of a prison as a child. I ran with it … At the same time, I came across a piece about an annual marriage festival held high in the Atlas Mountains.”