What can happen in a country when extremists take over? This novel foresees its future

An atmosphere of violence, fear, and hostility sweeps through the fictional country of Sumal as an extremist Jihadist group named Brotherhood imposes its set of laws and regulations on the previously liberal country. Public executions, moral policing, repression of freedom, and other ruthless implementations of the group’s own sense of law-and-order lap at the civilians’ life. Under this new regime, they must make sense of their bleak present while their somewhat glorious past peeks at them from a distance.

Amidst all the bustle of terror, a secret resistance group – an “underground newspaper” – tumbles forth with a vision to reinvigorate the mass consciousness of citizens and, thus, sow among them the seeds of relentless resistance. The soaring popularity of the newspaper launches Brotherhood into an investigation that can undo the activists’ efforts, snatching the kernel of hope they have towards Brotherhood’s demise.

Brotherhood, by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, translated from the French by Alexia Trigo, begins with a chilling scene where hordes of people cheer on as two lovers are publicly killed because of adultery. The scene effectively sets the stage for the essential mood of the novel. We immediately become aware of the forces at play here in the capital of Sumal;…

Read more