Two books that put you in Tunisia. One, The Pillar of Salt, is by a writer from Tunisia and set there. The other is a wider pick, by someone who knows the place well.
Very few Tunisian writers have been translated into English, and Albert Memmi's The Pillar of Salt is among the best known of those that have. Tunisians write in Arabic and French, the latter a legacy of the protectorate that lasted from 1881 to 1956. The historian Ibn Khaldun, born in Tunis in 1332, wrote the Muqaddimah, a famous introduction to history. Memmi's novel shows a Jewish boy in Tunis's poor quarter, caught between Jewish, Arab and European worlds under colonial rule.
Visitors and historians have turned to ancient Carthage instead. Richard Miles's Carthage Must Be Destroyed traces Phoenician Carthage from its founding to its destruction by Rome, anchored in the Tunisian coast and its ruins. Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô, drawing on his research trip to the site, is a vivid novel of the Mercenary War.
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A Tunisian Jewish boy grows up in Tunis's poor quarter under French colonial rule, caught between Jewish, Arab and European worlds.
By long-time residents and outsiders who know the place well, or folk tales, poetry and history with a strong feel for Tunisia.
A vivid historical novel of Carthage during the Mercenary War, drawing on Flaubert's research trip to the site.
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