"Horses of god" by Mahi Binebine (Granta, 2010)

On p.2 we learn that the first-person narrator, "Yachine", is a ghost. He can contact the living, but there are rules. He died without regrets at 18 in Casablanca. Before then he and his mates rummaged on the municipal dump for things to sell. We learn about the gang members. It's rough in the shanty town - there are careless deaths (bodies buried in the dump), all-male gang-bangs, glue-sniffing and prostitutes. The fun part is that the gang have formed a football team, "Stars of Sidi Moumen", which is in a local league.

On p.65 he watches his funeral. We learn that he was a suicide bomber. On p.94 we learn how Abu Zoubeir fundamentalised Yachine's older brother and gang-leader. The brother has the authority to influence the rest of the gang, who acquire greater self-respect and isolation from society, and a greater dependency on Abu Zoubeir, who introduces them to some authority figures. One thing leads to another. They will gain the keys to paradise.

The writing (or the translation - it was originally in French) seemed a little loose at times. For example, in "He'd shoot us a side-ways glance, enviously, sending subtle signals to find out the results of the matches we were playing without him. If his uncle noticed, a vengeful slap would fall like lightning on his face. He'd growl at him, calling us every name under the sun" (p.24) the vocabulary seems too sophisticated ("vengeful"?), or evasively "telling" rather than "showing" ("enviously"? "subtle signals"?). Later though, on p.76, we're told that Yachine's become more articulate of late - "When I was alive, I wouldn't have been able to describe her as I can now. I wasn't taught the words to convey the beauty of people or things" (p.76).

Other reviews

• Lucy Popescu (Binebene movingly portrays the path from disillusionment to violence, and Horses of God is a timely reminder of how poverty crushes hope and breeds hatred.)
• Michael Adelberg (Horses of God has some difficult moments. As with many translations, parts of the original text translate awkwardly, i.e., Yachine’s girlfriend’s breasts are “ripening pears.” More troubling are discussions around homosexuality—including a scene in which the boys rape one of their male friends. The treatment of this topic reads as otherworldly in book that is otherwise very realistic. The misalignment is not necessarily the fault of the translator, just recognition of the enormous gap between traditional Arab thinking and the modern American mind on certain topics. )
• goodreads (57 Reviews)