The Boy from Fez

The Boy from Fez is not simply the story of a childhood. It is the memory of a city told through the eyes of a boy who learned to read life long before he learned to explain it.

Growing up in the ancient medina of Fez, Hamid Mernissi was surrounded by a world of storytellers, craftsmen, saints, eccentrics, neighbours, family rituals, fragrances, arguments, laughter and faith. At the centre of that world was his grandmother, Lalla, whose tenderness and quiet spirituality became his first classroom.

Through vivid scenes of family life, friendship, mischief, loss and discovery, the book brings back a Fez that rarely entered history books: the Fez of ordinary people whose gestures, humour, dignity and wisdom shaped a child without ever announcing that they were teaching him.

Years later, after travelling across the world, the boy discovers that the city he thought he had left behind had been travelling with him all along.

The Boy from Fez is a memoir of memory and belonging, but above all, it is an act of gratitude—to the people and the city that made the boy before the boy became a man.