Second Movement • Novel
At the Gates of the Stars
What is left for a son when he is finally ready to return to his father… but his father has vanished?
Salim returns to Morocco with a clear purpose: to find Rayan. Yet very quickly, the search expands far beyond a simple disappearance. It compels him to revisit the places, memories, silences, and wounds that shaped their shared story.
As the investigation unfolds, another quest takes shape — that of meaning, transmission, and what one inherits in spite of oneself. Alongside Émilie, Salim also opens a dialogue that reaches far beyond the family sphere: science, philosophy, knowledge, the universe, doubt, and mystery.
At the Gates of the Stars is thus both a novel of father-son filiation and a profound inquiry into what lies beyond us.
Price
120 Dh
Pages
266
ISBN
978-9920-517-61-4
NOVEL EXCERPT
She takes his hand, rests her head on his shoulder. He puts his arm around her. Their fingers intertwine. Their heads touch. Their souls embrace. The lights of Paris shine in the veil formed by the fine rain.
As if by miracle, the rain stops, the sky clears, the stars reappear.
Silent, they savor the moment. She is happy to be snuggled against him. He does not dare move, for fear of disturbing the calm that envelops them.
Her hand finds itself on his chest, caresses it tenderly. Their faces draw closer. Their mouths seek each other. Their lips touch. He kisses her. She responds with a delicate kiss. He holds her a little tighter in his arms, kisses her more insistently. She pulls back slightly, frees herself from his embrace, fixes him with the eyes of a beaten cat.
— Salim, she whispers. I am a damaged woman. I am of no interest to a man. I cannot make love. My body imprisons me. I would like to get rid of it. Since my rape, I have closed in on myself. I have become frigid, insensitive. I dread the presence of a man. I no longer feel desire. I ignore what a man's warmth is.
She falls silent, wiping a tear that rolled down her cheek. With a look, he tries to tell her how much he sympathizes.
— I insisted you stay because I need a presence, to feel the warmth I lack. Your experience, your father's novel brought me closer to you. Your kindness, your sensitivity did the rest. You have fulfilled me by staying with me tonight. You have given me a lot. I don't want anything more.
— I am touched. I too needed a presence. Yours filled a void in me. I don't want anything more.
She throws herself at him, holds him tight against her, rests her head on his chest. He welcomes her affectionately in his arms, lets all the tenderness of his being wash over her, envelops her in the fleeting scents of a budding love.
On a hesitant autumn night, on the roofs of Paris, under the stars of a dark sky, torn by the drama of their childhood, a girl and a boy commune in silence, their eyes in the stars.
Sublimating their bruised souls, their beings melted into each other, their senses merged.
They love each other.
They haven't admitted it to themselves yet.
The rest belongs to the novel.
To pursue Salim's quest, you must now enter the book.
When a Researcher Explores the Depths of At the Gates of the Stars
« The representations of individual drama in Rida Lamrini's At the Gates of the Stars: the flow between myth and reality » — Abdelhalim Ziti, Hassan II University of Casablanca.
In an in-depth academic study published in the Revue Internationale du Chercheur (vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1116–1137), the researcher investigates the hidden layers of the novel: the childhood traumas of Salim, family dysfunction, the weight of silence, and the wounds shaping the characters. The analysis highlights how intimate drama converses with symbols, geography, culinary heritage, and Moroccan culture to bridge myth and reality.
« For a writer, seeing one’s work studied by a researcher is a singular experience. The scholar reveals correspondences and brings forward resonances born from the encounter between the text and their own perspective… »
— Rida Lamrini
Third movement • Coming early 2027
Meanders of Oblivion
The fresco then opens to a thriller: an erased memory, an identity to rebuild, an investigation that crosses borders, and a family history that continues its path.
Discover the third movement →