In his sixth novel to be published into English, Abdellah Taïa explores the dissonance of one man's homecoming marred by the memory of his tragic past and grief-filled present.

Upon his mother's death, Youssef-a Moroccan teacher who has lived in exile in France for a quarter of a century-returns to his hometown, Salé, at his sisters' request to settle the family estate.

In Salé, voices from Youssef's past reemerge, including that of Najib, his childhood friend and lover whose tragic fate saw him consumed by drug trafficking and corrupted as a colonel in King Hassan II's army. As Youssef wanders the Salé streets and alleyways, a world he left behind begins to take shape again, filled with poverty, hypocrisy, and violence against people who are marginalized. While the old city ramparts cast a long shadow over his story, Youssef confronts his childhood, recalls his young loves, and, in many ways, reconnects with his late mother.

ABDELLAH TAÏA is the author of Salvation Army (2009), which he made into an award-winning film, Infidels (2016), translated by Alison L. Strayer, A Country for Dying (2020), translated by Emma Ramadan, which was awarded the 2021 PEN Translation Prize. His most recent novel, Living in Your Light (2025), was shortlisted for the prestigious 2022 Prix Goncourt and was a recipient of the Albertine Translation Fund. Born in Rabat, Morocco in 1973, he now lives in Paris.

EMMA RAMADAN's translations include Anne Garréta's Sphinx (2015), which was nominated for the 2016 PEN Translation Prize and the Best Translated Book Award, Kaoutar Harchi's As We Exist (2023), Marguerite Duras's The Easy Life (2022), and Barbara Molinard's Panics (2022), among many others. The Fortress of Tears is the third translation by Ramadan of Abdellah Taïa's fiction, after A Country for Dying (2020) and Living in Your Light (2025). Ramadan is a recipient of the 2021 PEN Translation Prize, the 2018 Albertine Prize, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, a PEN/Heim grant, and a Fulbright.