Memories of a Vanished Community: In the Shadow of the Walls illustrates a vivid mosaic of memories that recounts an entire family history in the mellah (Jewish quarter) of Meknes, Morocco. A neighborhood where jinn (spirits) terrorized the population and devils (Angels of Death) made no distinction between children and parents, young and old, good and bad, poor and rich, believers and agnostics… “Childhood memories” are forever imprinted on our consciousness. They return in this work, as in dreams, with vivid, sometimes blurred, and often bizarre images. The setting and the characters are authentic. The era is set in the 1950s and 60s. The narrative is imbued with a literary intention; the child chases after the adult, urging him to recount the past, without self-pity or nostalgia. The story is woven into a world of proverbs that nourished the narrator’s youth. Beyond the story of a family and its secrets, this book perpetuates the « collective memory » of a community now scattered across the globe.