Leaving Tangier

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Leaving Tangier is about leaving home: emigrating, going into exile, taking leave of one’s country, one’s friends and family, even one’s senses. The many ties that bind the characters in Leaving Tangier to what they have left behind tug on their heartstrings in different ways, some of which evoke geographical, historical, or cultural references to a world that may well be unfamiliar to an English reader. I have provided endnotes to illuminate the meaning of such allusions, and an asterisk by a word in the text means that the term is explained in these notes at the end of the book.

My Cameroonian friend Flaubert says ‘Here I am!’ when he’s leaving and ‘We’re together!’ to say goodbye. A way to ward off bad luck. In this novel, those who leave aren’t planning to return, and when they leave someone, it’s for good. Flaubert, who studied a few pages of Madame Bovary in school, has promised to read this entire book as soon as summer vacation begins, when he goes home.

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