the forgiven

The Forgiven by Lawrene Osborne (Hogarth, 2012)

An elegant, enthralling, morally engaging novel that I enjoyed very much, although the unlikeability of the main character — all the characters, in fact — prevents it from having a more profound or devastating effect.  A rich, middle-aged English couple travel to the desert boondocks in Morocco to attend a wildly decadent weekend-long party hosted by a gay male couple who have bought and restored a ruined a palace and village.  On their way there, driving from Tangier, the couple hit and kill a Moroccan fossil seller, which casts a dreadful pall over the festive weekend.  Things go from bad to worse when the dead man’s father appears and insists that the English man travel back with him and his son’s body to their remote desert village for the burial.  The man leaves his wife behind at the party and enters this other, nether, world, from which he does not return, although the twist at the end is unexpected and deeply ironic.

Osborne takes every advantage of his exotic location and morally-fraught situation with its ancient culture clash, and his clear and intelligent prose allows all the aspects of this novel to flourish and engage the reader.  If only he had allowed us to have a little more — any! — sympathy for the horrid Brits (especially the husband, who is utterly repellent).