Loading ...Laila Lalami wins Arab American Book Award
Rabat – Laila Lalami, a Moroccan American novelist and essayist, has been named a winner of the 2015 Arab American Book Award for her fiction novel, The Moor’s Account.
The award honors books written by and about Arab Americans to generate awareness of Arab American scholarship and writing.
The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami, published in 2014, tells a historical fiction story about a Moroccan slave and the first African explorer of America. The protagonist, Al-Zamori, called Estevanico by his captors, went on to travel and explore the land that would later become the Southern United States, acting as a healer and interpreter.
According to the author’s website, “Lalami captures Estebanico’s voice and vision, giving us an alternate narrative for this famed expedition.”
The Moor’s Account has won numerous other prestigious awards, such as the American Book Award, is a Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year, and is also a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Source: www.moroccoworldnews.com