Aya Dane

I adored the previous Mhani Alaoui book I read, Dreams Of Maryam Tair, so was thrilled when her publisher offered me a review copy of Alaoui's new novel, Aya Dane. The two novels are very different in their subject matter, but both share the author's gorgeously rich prose style. I love how Mhani was able to portray the world as Aya sees it, ie through an artist's appreciation of colour and texture, and the scenes where she is working alone in her attic studio are wonderfully vivid. I really felt as though I could witness the creative process happening in front of me and, for a brief moment at least, was able to glimpse behind Aya's protective facade.

Aya Dane is a intensely complex character. I didn't feel that I completely understood her until the end of the novel and even then I had questions about whose version of the truth was the one I should accept. Alaoui shows us Aya through her own eyes and through the eyes of her lover, David. She is undoubtedly a damaged soul. Perhaps this is as a result of her unusual upbringing, or her deliberate self-isolation, or her inability to reconcile the Moroccan and American aspects of her life. Aya identifies with a particular Frida Kahlo painting (showing the artist as two women) and this sense of a split identity threads through the novel.

As we learn more about Aya's Moroccan childhood and the way in which she parts from her family, I felt I had more understanding of how this woman had become so alienated from the world around her. Yet I also loved that, howver convincing her descriptions and story, I was never completely sure whether Aya was telling the truth or her truth, and how much might simply be a feverishly imaginative mind. Aya Dane is a superb novel for readers who appreciate unreliable narrators, immersive storytelling and picturesque poetic prose.