Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Nation, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship and was short-listed for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2006. She lives in Los Angeles.
For me, anyway, I think I want a book to represent more than one voice. It seems rather false, and rather limited, to have just one narrator. I just find, for me, the kind of books I want to write, it is a kind of nestling in of different personas.
A young man born into poverty in Morocco finds his life taking a bizarre turn, when he discovers that his father is not dead, as he had always been told, but is in fact a prosperous businessman. In Laila Lalami's novel "Secret Son," Youssef winds up in a fancy apartment with all the comforts of a home he never knew. But, of course, they didn't all live happily ever after...
For me, anyway, I think I want a book to represent more than one voice. It seems rather false, and rather limited, to have just one narrator. I just find, for me, the kind of books I want to write, it is a kind of nestling in of different personas. 
