Elias Cannetti’s book gave me an insight into Marrakesh I’d never come across before. I’d often read about the souks and the snake charmers but the author takes you into much deeper and sometimes darker parts of the city from his stay there in the late 1950’s. Cannetti has quite a cold way of describing his experiences and instead offers you so much detail, whether it’s his encounters with camels – comparing them to elderly ladies taking tea together – or the allurement of choosing a loaf in Djema el-Fna Square. However, it’s his conversations with a whole array of interesting characters from contented beggars & eccentric barmaids to mysterious people in the back streets which really define the book. A recommended read for anyone looking to go below the surface of Morocco‘s fascinating cultural capital.