Venice Requiem
Morocco

Venice Requiem

by Khalid Lyamlahy

Society & Class Fiction 2023

Summary

On a cold January day in 2017, a young Gambian refugee named Pateh Sabally drowns in Venice’s Grand Canal while tourists and passers-by watch. Some even hurl insults at him. Horrified by this tragedy, a young writer sets out to reconstruct Pateh’s final days and understand the circumstances that led to his death. Moving through Venice’s literary history, from Thomas Mann to Marcel Proust, the narrator confronts an uncomfortable question: what does it mean to celebrate beauty and culture while turning away from human suffering? Blending fiction, investigation, and literary reflection, Khalid Lyamlahy offers a powerful meditation on migration, racism, indifference, and the moral responsibility of witnessing another person’s pain. Venice Requiem is both a tribute to a forgotten life and an indictment of a society that too often fails to recognise the humanity of those on its margins.

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Country
Morocco
Africa
About the author
Khalid Lyamlahy
Khalid Lyamlahy

Khalid Lyamlahy (born 1986) is a Moroccan novelist, literary scholar, and academic whose work explores migration, identity, memory, and the relationship between literature and political reality. Born in Rabat, Morocco, he pursued advanced studies in French and Francophone literature, earning a doctorate from the University of Oxford. His academic research examines postcolonial writing and the intellectual movements that have shaped modern Moroccan literature. Lyamlahy made his literary debut with Un roman étranger in 2017. His subsequent novel, Venice Requiem, draws on the real-life death of Gambian refugee Pateh Sabally in Venice in 2017 to investigate the moral implications of public indifference and the treatment of migrants in Europe. Originally written in French, the book combines literary references, social criticism, and a search for human dignity. It received the 2024 Prix Éthiophile, recognising its contribution to literature exploring Africa and its diasporas. Lyamlahy teaches French and Francophone literature at the University of Chicago, continuing to combine his academic interests with creative writing.

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Details
Published
2023
Author
Khalid Lyamlahy