Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in Fes, Morocco, in December 1944. He is a Moroccan poet and writer. All his work is written in French, although his mother tongue is Arabic.

After attending a bilingual (Arabic-French) primary school, Ben Jelloun studied French in Tangier, Morocco, until the age of 18. He continued his studies in philosophy at the Mohammed-V University in Rabat, where he wrote his first poems (collected in Hommes sous linceul de silence (1971)).

Ben Jelloun then worked as a professor in Morocco, teaching philosophy first in Tetouan and then in Casablanca. He left Morocco in 1971, however, after the Arabisation of the philosophy department, unable or unwilling to teach in Arabic. He moved to Paris to continue his studies in psychology and began to write more extensively.

From 1972, Ben Jelloun began writing articles and reviews for the French newspaper Le Monde, and in 1975 he obtained his doctorate in social psychiatry. Drawing on his experience of psychotherapy, he wrote La Réclusion solitaire in 1976.

In 1985, Ben Jelloun published the novel "L'Enfant de sable", which was widely acclaimed. In 1987, he won the Prix Goncourt for his novel La Nuit Sacrée.

In 1997 he published Le Racisme expliqué à ma fille, in which he "explains racism to his daughter", using his family as an inspiration for his novels. He is regularly invited to give speeches and lectures at universities around the world, both in Morocco and in Europe.

In 2004, Ben Jelloun won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for This Blinding Absence of Light (translated from the French by Linda Coverdale). In 2005, he was awarded the Prix Ulysse for his body of work.

In September 2006, Ben Jelloun was awarded a special prize for "peace and friendship between peoples" at the Lazio between Europe and the Mediterranean Festival.

On 1 February 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy made him a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.

Ben Jelloun is married with 4 children. He lives in Paris.

In his novel Leaving Tangier, Ben Jelloun writes about a Moroccan brother and sister who leave their impoverished homeland in search of a better life in Spain. This novel casts a cold light on an often overlooked and sometimes unimaginable side of North African life, and is unflinching in its commitment to exposing the sacrifice and pain involved in the struggle to rise above poverty and move within the Western world.Leaving Tangier follows the journeys of Azel and his sister Kenza as they attempt to reinvent their lives in Barcelona, and how their paths diverge once they arrive.Each sibling's ambition rests in the hands of Miguel, a mysterious, wealthy older Spaniard and a man who is generous and loving one moment, demanding and cruel the next. Miguel's power lies in what he can give the siblings - and in what he can take away.

His novels L'Enfant de sable and La Nuit sacrée have been translated into 43 languages. Le racism expliqué à ma fille has been translated into 33 languages. In 1987, he won the Prix Goncourt for his novel La Nuit Sacrée.