Rabat — French-Moroccan author Leïla Slimani is taking her family saga from Morocco to Los Angeles, where she will appear at the Marciano Art Foundation on September 30.
Slimani will join cultural interviewer Paul Holdengräber for a conversation exploring literature, gender, identity, sexuality, and freedom.
The event will also turn toward “I’ll Take the Fire,” Slimani’s latest novel and the concluding volume of a trilogy rooted in her family’s history in Morocco.
The conversation begins at 7 p.m. at the Marciano Art Foundation’s Window Gallery. A book sale and signing will follow.
The Los Angeles appearance comes months after the English-language edition of “I’ll Take the Fire” was released in June.
A trilogy rooted in Morocco
“I’ll Take the Fire” follows “In the Country of Others” and “Watch Us Dance,” completing a multigenerational story shaped by Morocco’s social and political transformations.
The final novel centers on Mia Daoud, a young woman growing up in Morocco before seeking a life beyond the expectations surrounding her.
Her journey stretches from Casablanca to Paris and London, while the story moves through major historical moments including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the September 11 attacks.
The novel also brings Slimani’s literary project closer to her own generation.
The author has previously described the trilogy as drawing from her family’s history, while using fiction to explore broader questions of belonging, freedom, memory, and identity.
Slimani was born in Rabat in 1981 and moved to Paris at 17. She later became a journalist before establishing herself as one of the best-known contemporary French-language novelists.
Her international breakthrough came with “The Perfect Nanny,” which won France’s Prix Goncourt in 2016. She became the first Moroccan woman to receive the prestigious literary award.
Her bibliography also includes “Adèle” and “Sex and Lies,” a nonfiction work examining women’s experiences and sexual politics in Morocco.
From family memory to a new chapter
The Los Angeles discussion arrives as Slimani begins moving beyond the trilogy that occupied years of her writing life.
The Marciano Art Foundation noted that she recently participated in the Museo del Prado’s “Writing in the Prado” residency in Madrid, where she has been developing another literary project inspired by the museum.
For Moroccan readers, however, the September 30 conversation offers another opportunity to revisit the world Slimani has spent three novels constructing.
Her trilogy transforms an intimate family history into a wider portrait of Morocco across generations, following characters negotiating independence, family expectations, social change, migration, and personal freedom.
Bringing that story to Los Angeles extends its journey once again, showing how a narrative rooted deeply in Morocco can continue finding readers and conversations far beyond it.
