Asya Djoulaït

The novel "Ibn" tells the harrowing story of fifteen-year-old Issa, whose world collapses when his mother, Leïla, dies during the afternoon prayer. The five daily prayers—Fajr, Dhuhr, 'Asr, Maghrib, and 'Icha—not only structure time but also reflect Issa's emotional odyssey, marking the protagonist's growing despair and determination. Driven by his grief and his refusal to once again entrust his mother (after his father's death) to strangers' funeral rites, Issa undertakes the courageous but hopeless attempt to orchestrate the funeral himself. He plans to build a personal mausoleum for his mother and to perform the ritual washing and funeral prayers himself, even if it means violating traditional norms. These independent actions stand in stark contrast to the expectations and concerns of his mother, Leïla, who had always striven to help him settle in France and establish a stable position, whether through education, the deliberate choice of Montreuil as his home to avoid ghettoization, or his participation in Quranic school to anchor him in the Muslim community and prevent him from feeling "lost." Issa navigates between religious rules, personal convictions, and the harsh reality of death, which confronts him with his own identity as the "son of the dead."