From “one of the most important writers of our times” (Chicago Tribune), a reissue of this legendary, unusual, and gripping novel, dictated to Paul Bowles, author of The Sheltering Sky, by an illiterate North African fruit vendor

One of the most unusual books ever written, A Life Full of Holes is the first novel ever produced in Moghrebi, an Arabic dialect of North Africa. It is the result of a curious collaboration between American novelist Paul Bowles and a young, illiterate Arab servant and street vendor, who spoke his tale into Bowles’ tape recorder. The theme of this book is survival—literal, material survival. From the time he is orphaned at the age of eight, the narrator is preoccupied with the relentless daily necessities of life, working as a shepherd, a petty trafficker, and everything in between. Used and abused, cheated of his wages, he struggles to maintain hope. Straightforward but not simplistic, A Life Full of Holes is woven through with moving, poetic beauty.