Abtellatif Laabi spent eight years in a Moroccan prison for “crimes of opinion”. This poetic and lyrical memoir is a record of the comradeship he found there, but also much more. It is the writer’s contemplation on solitude itself as well as his rediscovery of passion on his unexpected return to family and friends.

Rue du Retour is about a poet’s return – to home and family, to himself, and to the eternal values of love and hope.
These human values are at the core of his moving and poignant story – the testimony of a remarkable man of conscience speaking to “those who can still hear the cry of man”.