Texts selected by Nadine Eghels and Tahar Ben Jelloun, read by Nicolas Pignon

With music by Driss Al-Maloumi and his Ensemble

In the presence of the author

In French

In Islam, when a man sets off on a journey, he is permitted to marry for the duration of his trip. This is called a ‘happy marriage’.

So it was in these circumstances that Amir, a prosperous merchant from Fes, temporarily married Nabou, a Peul from Dakar, the city where he had just stocked up his merchandise. And there Amir fell in love with Nabou and suggested he take her to Fes. She accepted, became his second wife and gave birth to twins. One was white and one was black, and the latter one had to confront racism and jealousy on a daily basis.

Recipient of many prizes and awards, the French-speaking writer and poet from Fes, Tahar Ben Jelloun, is best known for his 1985 novel The Sand Child. With A Happy Marriage, published in 2016, he tells a family saga spanning three generations, based on the labyrinth of stories that is the Fes medina. Touching as well as sociopolitical, the novel is a tale that praises courage and exhorts tolerance.

The actor Nicolas Pignon, well known as the ‘great reader’ for his contributions to the Association Textes & Voix, joins Driss el-Maloumi, composer and acclaimed master of the oud originally from Agadir.