A novel in the Arabic language by Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun, translated from the French 'Au pays' (In the Country). Muhammad has spent the past forty years working in France. As he approaches retirement, he takes stock of his life, his devotion to Islam and to his assimilated children, and decides to return to Morocco, where he spends his life's savings building the biggest house in the village and waiting for his children and grandchildren to come be with him. A heartbreaking novel about parents and children, A Palace in the Old Village captures the sometimes stark contrasts between old and new-world values, and an immigrant's abiding pursuit of home (from English Edition back cover)