As a young army officer in 1971 Aziz BineBine was imprisoned after being unwittingly involved
in the attempted assassination of Morocco's then king Hassan II. He then endured 18 years in
the nightmarish conditions of the secret prison Tazmamart where inmates were kept in darkness
underground confined to small cells and forced to survive on the barest rations. With his
fellow prisoners dying around him BineBine realised the only way to survive was to forget the
world outside his cell to forget his past his family and his friends. An unfiltered
depiction of the agony of prison life and written with touching simplicity and great
tenderness Tazmamart is a hellish journey through the abyss of despair. It is a powerful and
at times searing tale and a testimony to the triumph of one human spirit pitted against
injustice and savage cruelty.
