ABOUT
THE BOOK

Above All, Don’t Look Back follows the path of a young woman—Amina—as she makes her way through a city, a life, and a sense of self that have been ravaged by an earthquake. In this powerful novel, inspired by a devastating earthquake in northern Algeria in 2003, the acclaimed Algerian writer Maïssa Bey skilfully interweaves descriptions of the earthquake with descriptions of Amina’s family, culture, and country and her place within them. She leaves the reader to wonder whether Amina is fleeing the earthquake or something much more complex.
Through prose that marries form and content, Bey shows the full breadth of her talent. She goes beyond straightforward journalistic narrative to represent the inner experience of a victim of a natural disaster. The novel’s nonlinear structure and deliberate incoherence plunge the reader into a state of disorientation that will especially resonate for survivors of other natural disasters worldwide.