The Chain

Encarna Cabello is a Spanish writer and
sociologist, who has lived in Morocco,
spent long stays in Egypt and has trave-
lled far and wide throughout the Arab
countries.
She has had four novels published, and
a collection of short stories. This is her
first novel translated into the English.Encarna Cabello
Few places in the world are like Mulaya, where Christians, Arabs and Jews from every social class live side by side, speaking several different languages, all in a fenced-off city with a surface area smaller tan Manhattan, Hong Kong or Key West.
The imaginary Spanish enclave of Mulaya is a centuries-old colonial city where cultures collide: Moroccan paupers in search of a better life, Algerians fleeing the civil war and members of Spain’s military and civil service on assignments, both long and short living in close quarters with North African locals from the Catholic, Muslim and Jews communities, all forming the patchwork that is Mulayan society. Immigrants at the bottom are forced into menial jobs or even selling their own bodies, while those in the highest social strata reap the benefits of a system which helps ensure the status quo, with any scandal and subversiveness kept discreetly hidden behind a veil of apparent propriety.