Secret Son has a good mix of personal and political drama and it takes the time to examine how the two can overlap. He’s dreamed of a better life for so long that when he gets that opportunity, he never questions what it might cost him. Once again proving the phrase, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Once Youssef and his father get to know one another, Youssef doesn’t see the point of studying as his father can just get him a good job on his word alone. especially once he learns who his father is. Whereas his mother wants Youssef to get a good education and go to university to better himself, he lacks the drive or ambition to do that. While Youssef can be criticised for dumping those who had card about him for so long, chapters or passages from other characters points of view show how the people surrounding him, including his mother and his friends, have lied to him many times. He leaves his mother and his friends and moves to a new apartment where every one of his whims are catered for as his father promises him many new things. Once he finds out about his father, Youssef is quick to leave all he’s known to live what he feels is a better life. Secret Son is a traditional coming of age story as Youssef grows a lot as a person as he explores who he is and where he’s come from. But as he leaves the poverty of his childhood behind, he finds some harsh truths and difficulties he must face. He’s always dreamed of escape and then one day, when the father he presumed was dead turns out to be very much alive and very wealthy, Youssef is whisked away from the slums to the luxurious life of Casablanca’s elite. But as he leaves the slums of his childhood behind him, he comes up against a starkly un-glittering reality.Nineteen-year-old Youssef El-Mekki grew up in a one-room home with his mother down the stinking alleys of Casablanca. Soon Youssef is installed in his penthouse and sampling the gold-plated luxuries enjoyed by Casablanca's elite. A high profile businessman with wealth to burn, Nabil is disenchanted with his daughter and eager to take in the boy he never knew.

Until, that is, the father he thought dead turns out to be very much alive.

Raised by his mother in a one-room home, the film stars flickering on the local cinema's screen offer the only glimmer of hope to his frustrated dreams of escape. Publishers Description: When a young man is given the chance to rewrite his future, he doesn't realize the price he will pay for giving up his past.Casablanca's stinking alleys are the only home that nineteen-year-old Youssef El-Mekki has ever known. He Watches Lots Of Movies And A Dream Almost Becomes A Reality Youssef Is Brought Up In The Slums, But Has Dreams Of Becoming Big. Book is in Very good condition throughout.

Secret Son by Laila Lalami