Born in El Jadida, Morocco, in 1926, Driss Chraibi had a French education in Casablanca. He went to Paris at age twenty in order to study chemistry and neuro-psychiatry, though he eventually turned to literature and journalism. His first novel was published in 1954, two years before Morocco gained its independence from France. He has written many subsequent novels, some of them dealing with the issue of colonialism. Others also sound very autobiographical since they are written in the first person by a main character named Driss. Being autobiographical is entirely possible, since he like his characters is caught between two worlds, the East and the West, Arab and French. Chraibi is the only Moroccan writer who has received international attention.

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