"Adieu Tanger", published by Grasset, is the first novel by the young author who, at just 24, questions gender relations and toxic masculinity.
Summary: "Alia is a schoolgirl living in Tangiers. Every day, she realises that her body is a nuisance on the streets where she lives - she is stripped, whistled at and followed. While her parents think they are protecting her by advising her to be more discreet, the teenager refuses this injunction to invisibility and wants to understand the reasons for male desire. So Alia starts taking photos of herself. In the illusory secrecy of her bedroom, she poses, lies down, arches her back and observes the body that men are watching for.
Although Alia secretly loves an older boy, it is in the arms of Quentin, a French expatriate in her class, that she finally falls. But far from the fantasy of her blonde locks and a few guitar chords, she discovers that freedom carries little weight compared to a woman's reputation. Because she refused Quentin, her photos ended up on the internet. Article 483 of the Moroccan Penal Code, which punishes any form of public indecency with imprisonment, leaves her no choice but to flee. Alia made Lyon her city of exile, working as a waitress in a restaurant on the River Saône. Now reduced to nothing more than an Arab in the eyes of the French, she is finally caught up by Quentin's face, which threatens to drive her into madness. Will she have to leave everything behind again to survive? Will she have to leave her country, her town, her body, go so far away that she now doubts she'll ever see Tangier again?
Salma El Moumni, originally from Tangiers, studied literature in France and now lives in Paris. She came very close to winning the "Prix Médicis 2023", winning four votes from the jury in the final vote on 9 November, against six for Canadian Kevin Lambert ("Que notre joie demeure").
Supported by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Centre National du Livre (CNL), the Prix Roman des étudiants France Culture is awarded each year to a work written in French that is part of the new literary season.