The Secrets of Folder 42

In this thriller-cum-jigsaw puzzle, two storylines play out across continents and true historical events as American novelist Christine McMillan and student Rachid Bennacer aim to solve The Secrets of Folder 42, while chess champion Zouhair Belkacem, shunted off to medical school in Moscow, returns to Morocco in time for a spectacular crunch day.

Abdelmajid Sebbata is the author of three novels in Arabic: Khalfa jidar al-'Ashuq (Behind the Wall of Passion, 2015), Saa'at al-Sifr 00:00 (Zero Hour 00:00, 2017) which won the 2018 Moroccan Book Award, and this novel The Secrets of Folder 42 (Al-Malaf 42 [File 42], 2020, shortlisted for the 2021 International Prize for Arabic Fiction). Born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1989, Sebbata has a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tangiers. He has written articles and translations on literary, cultural and historical subjects that have been published in print and online in Morocco and other Arab countries, and has translated into Arabic Walter Tevis's The Queen's Gambit and two novels by the French thriller writer Michel Bussi.