Buy new:
$14.99
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$14.99
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 19 hrs 48 mins
In Stock
$$14.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$14.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$13.24
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Thursday, May 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$14.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$14.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Tahar Ben Jelloun
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

This Blinding Absence of Light Paperback – January 31, 2006

by Tahar Ben Jelloun (Author), Linda Coverdale (Translator)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 93 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$14.99","priceAmount":14.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"14","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"NajdsbQk1aF5a6HgIDdUTaJW%2Fn8%2F4NmKX6OCzzApr%2BPVPuVd5%2BB6C%2FZhJAWDjFRGusZV9llns54dwikJKImMSWAsBft9afY2yXgmEqLdSgVX4vM6HYOdVg9JHl97Hu8O4EaGO%2B%2BZ10Q%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$13.24","priceAmount":13.24,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"13","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"24","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"NajdsbQk1aF5a6HgIDdUTaJW%2Fn8%2F4NmKNKLDnL%2BOaWeL2jpHAV%2Fo3ysQ8Qa38EVI7Z5vk66GwfHZ7uAPjtN3ksyjmJNWNEs2EHfN0BIVTLSSniEE0lMVpEushxZcW5KzlBwemVKrEJmjgM0PkPqzuOdxNa0g8LDpRA8sbtv%2Blgg9lLwz1yPLGVTzfXCmq687","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

An immediate and critically acclaimed bestseller in France, This Blinding Absence of Light is the latest work by internationally renowned author Tahar Ben Jelloun, the first North African winner of the Prix Goncourt and winner of the Prix Mahgreb. Crafting real life events into narrative fiction, Ben Jelloun reveals the horrific story of the desert concentration camps in which King Hassan II of Morocco held his political enemies in underground cells with no light and only enough food and water to keep them lingering on the edge of death. Working closely with one of the survivors, Ben Jelloun narrates the story in the simplest of language and delivers a shocking novel that explores both the limitlessness of inhumanity and the impossible endurance of the human will.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    208 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Books
  4. Publication date
    January 31, 2006
  5. Dimensions
    5.05 x 0.53 x 7.01 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    014303572X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0143035725
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Frequently bought together

This Blinding Absence of Light
$14.99
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Lords of the Atlas: The Rise and Fall of the House of Glaoua 1893-1956
$20.77
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
Only 5 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by TheWorldShopUSA and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
The Sand Child
$25.65
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
Only 5 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by ayvax and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ben Jelloun is a writer of social and moral acuteness. -- Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in Fez, Morocco, and immigrated to France in 1961. A novelist, essayist, critic, and poet, he is a regular contributor to Le Monde, La Républica, El País, and Panorama.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Translation edition (January 31, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014303572X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143035725
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.05 x 0.53 x 7.01 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 93 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
93 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars do it
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2019
Verified Purchase
This book, due to it being essentially all in darkness, becomes highly metaphysical at points, discussing ways in which the narrator and other prisoners dealt with the bafflingly horrid conditions they were subject to. Hurts your heart to read in many places, but also a story of the ever-overcoming and -transcending spirit of us humans.

Also an eye opener to how prisoners may have been tortured in other parts of the Islamic world, although this certainly has to be one of the worst accounts of any torture, by any people.

This novel is as much about the religious aspect of one who has every reason to curse fate yet still pursues his God as his ultimate savior, as well as witnessing the one of the most uncomfortably bent and hideously twisted corners of human history.

Prose is fantastic. Short chapters, wide number of topics and occurrences hit on so it moves very fast. 189pg
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Jose Marquez
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow.
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2021
Verified Purchase
Must read.
Helpful
 Report
Nancy O
4.0 out of 5 stars Surviving the darkness
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2010
Verified Purchase
Ben Jalloun's novel is based on the story of one Aziz Binebine, who was sentenced to a 20-year stretch of time in the hellhole prison of Tazmamart for his role in the 1971 attempted coup of King Hassan II's Moroccan government. The novel is fictional, but the underground prison of Tazmamart and living conditions there (it is now destroyed) are not.

The book examines the story of one character, Salim, who like his fellow cadets from the coup attempt, was sent to this horrible place. Their "home" was an underground cell, so small that even something as ordinary as sitting was an impossibility. Cockroaches and scorpions were co-inhabitants, as was the constant darkness. The food kept the prisoners alive, but just barely. Many of the prisoners turned to their faith in Allah and to the Qu'ran to make it through their ordeal, while Salim turned deeply inward, letting go of both memory, because "to remember was to die," and of the physicality of his body.

This Blinding Absence of Light is one of those books you must actually experience for yourself -- book reviews and descriptions of it can't really do the story justice. If you have a low tolerance for human despair, or you're in the mood for something happy, forget this one. Difficult to read at many points (and on many levels), this book left me considering the cruelty that can more often than not accompany power. It's also a reminder that in some cases, Hell already exists on earth.
16 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Taylor Groves
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2020
Verified Purchase
Such a great read, I recommend it to everyone!
Helpful
 Report
ADZP
5.0 out of 5 stars I'd recommend this book to anyone
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2016
Verified Purchase
I'd recommend this book to anyone. It's an eye-opening and tragic read based upon interviews of people imprisoned in underground prisons in Morocco. Thankful for Amnesty International and everyone else who helped release these prisoners.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
kohl
5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2017
Verified Purchase
There is a fair amount of suffering in this book. Very emotional and very well written.
Helpful
 Report
John Grunwell
4.0 out of 5 stars You think you got it bad?
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2009
Verified Purchase
You don't know nuthin'! At least you're not rotting away in an dank, absolutely dark underground dungeon for more than a decade, half-starving and going mad, where your only pleasure is to not feel anything in particular, and the occasional bird song that one hears.
Helpful
 Report
walter
5.0 out of 5 stars came in great condition as
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2017
Verified Purchase
Book is abit bleek but an awsome read, came in great condition as described
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Shirleybrunt
5.0 out of 5 stars powerful
Reviewed in Canada on July 26, 2021
Verified Purchase
very sad made me cry ...although a novel this prison does exist yes in 2021
Report
Gogol
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 5, 2011
Verified Purchase
A previous reviewer described this book as shocking and she is quite right, it is shocking. She also said she was glad she read it. Again, I totally agree. My review is simply to add a bit more background to that so the potential reader can understand why it is so shocking.

The book is basically about the political prisoners from the Moroccan military who took part in the failed coup against the former king. They were incarcerated in a secret prison for over a decade in the desert and endured some of the worst conditions imaginable.

The book is written from a first person point of view (And apparently this has caused some controversy due to the prisoner in question apparently accusing Ben Jelloun of plagiarism but thats another matter) The prisoners are in complete darkness in a single cell where they cannot stand up straight, the are pretty much kept there out of sight and out of mind. The book describes what they endured and it truly was awful (I had memories of watching the film Papillon as a kid) One part that really got me was one of the prisoners who kept his bread in a sack hanging in his cell eating a little at a time suddenly turning ill. It was only when the guards shone light in the cell they realised that the bag was full of cockroaches and he hadn't seen them in the dark!

Ben Jelloun is an excellent writer, this book is extremely easy to read and I have to say its something I find quite remarkable about the author that you can pretty much read his books almost in one sitting, not because they are short of content or anything but simply because they are well written and well put together.

I dont give 5 stars too often but this book deserves it.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
Katrina Love
4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 2, 2021
Verified Purchase
Brilliant book. The long ramblings of dialogue can be a bit over dramatic sometimes but the rest of the story compensates for that. You route for the characters, getting quite invested and saddened if one of them doesn’t make it. Overall an enjoyable read.
One person found this helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on October 20, 2017
Verified Purchase
Love it!!!
Report
Katrina M
4.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommend.
Reviewed in Canada on March 24, 2016
Verified Purchase
Morbid and extremely engaging. Highly recommend.
Report