Hope And Other Dangerous Pursuits

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits is a work of fiction written by Moroccan native Laila Lalami and published in 2005. The narrative is comprised of nine stories involving the lives of four major characters, all of whom attempt to emigrate illegally from Morocco to Spain in order to have better lives. Despite the fact that these stories are separate from one another, the book does not represent a short story collection in the classic sense; rather, it has a single thread that ties all of these disparate stories together: the trip these characters attempt as they cross the Strait of Gibraltar together, witnessed in the first story of the narrative.

The narrative may not adhere to the classic Western concept of the novel, as it favors a more communal aspect of narration. Although it does seem to privilege the perspective of Murad, as he is the only character to whom three stories are devoted, the author seems to use Murad as a mechanism for the telling of these communal stories. In this way, the focus is not necessarily on Murad himself but upon his role as the storyteller of these communal narratives. All the stories, including those of Murad, are told from a third-person

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