Laila Lalami Books in Order

Four Moroccans risk crossing to Spain in an inflatable boat, each seeking escape from a difficult life. Their intertwined stories explore the families, hopes, and dangers that propel them toward an uncertain future beyond home.

Raised in a Casablanca slum, nineteen-year-old Youssef discovers that the father he believed dead is a wealthy businessman. Their reunion offers a different life, but competing loyalties expose the distance between his family's worlds.

An enslaved Moroccan man recounts a disastrous Spanish expedition to Florida in this fictional memoir. As four survivors cross an unfamiliar continent, their changing relationships challenge the authority of official histories and the boundaries between master and servant.

A Moroccan immigrant's death in a California hit-and-run draws his daughter back to her hometown. Interwoven accounts from relatives, neighbors, a witness, and a detective reveal the conflicts and unexpected connections surrounding the investigation.

Drawing on her journey from Morocco to American citizenship, Laila Lalami examines who receives the full protections of belonging. Personal experience, history, and politics inform her discussion of how race, gender, and national origin shape citizenship.

Sara is detained after an algorithm analyzing her dreams predicts she will harm her husband. Strict, shifting rules prolong her confinement among other women, until a new arrival challenges the order and exposes the machinery controlling their freedom.