Abdelkader Benali over zijn nieuwe roman De opdracht van de Moor

The writer Omar Lorenzo is commissioned by an engineering firm to map Venice using the stories of its visitors. The stories of travellers, refugees and fortune seekers form the basis on which the most ambitious project in the history of urban architecture can be carried out: the relocation of Venice, threatened by flooding, to the safe desert in the Middle East. Lorenzo is helped by the enigmatic homeless Moor, who turns out to be a natural storyteller. They tell each other stories that show how the world is connected, from the Waal to the Grand Canal, from Dubai to Tangier – precisely when the water is up to our lips.

Abdelkader Benali was born in 1975 in Ighazzazen (Morocco). He lived in Rotterdam from the age of four, moved to Leiden during his studies and now lives in Amsterdam. Before he made his debut with the novel Wedding by the Sea (1996), he received the El Hizjra Literature Prize twice. Wedding by the Sea was awarded the Geertjan Lubberhuizen Prize 1997 for the best debut in 1997 and the Prix de Meilleur Premier Roman Etranger (France) in 1999. The book was also nominated for the Libris Literature Prize 1997. In an interview in Trouw, Benali said about his debut: "This book has brought me closer to my roots on the one hand, but has also distanced me from them. But the story had to be told. Now I can pull out more stops. Show more worlds." The book was reviewed positively and has since been translated into English, the United States, Spain, Germany, France and Denmark, among others.