I, The Forgotten

A novel of Moroccan Jewish life, memory and belonging

Through a narrator who claims to have lived for centuries, Mohamed Azzedine Tazi explores Jewish life in the Mellah of Fez, intertwined Jewish–Muslim relationships, and the memories carried by those who leave Morocco for Israel.

Shaul Ben ʻAmithaʼīl Zāz has lived through centuries of Moroccan Jewish life. Or so he tells us.

In the Mellah, the Jewish quarter of Fez, he moves among crowded taverns, family quarrels, shared meals and whispered fears. Jews and Muslims live as neighbours, their lives bound together by friendship, trade, desire and suspicion. As people leave Morocco for Israel, the stories follow them, carrying memories of home into the uncertainties of another life.

Moving freely through time and between voices, Mohamed Azzedine Tazi brings an inhabited world into view: its pleasures and cruelties, its intimacy and divisions. I, the Forgotten is a novel about belonging, departure and the lives that remain in memory after their streets have fallen silent.