Youssef Mekkli is the secret son, the illegitimate offspring of Nabil Amrani a wealthy businessman from Fes and Rachida Ouchak a nurse who was looking after Malika, Nabil's wife as she was having a baby, who would be Youssef's sister, Amal. Nabil has an affair with Rachida and his mother in law finds out and turns her out of the house. Nabil gives Rachida money for an abortion but she decides to keep her baby and moves to a slum in Casablanca to start a new life with her child.

This novel is about betrayal and the lies which are told to escape "hshouma", the shame which a family oriented society does everything to avoid at any cost. Single parent families like Rachida and Youssef suffer accordingly. Youssef is told lies by his mother about his father and when he finds out his father's true identity it turns him against her and sets him on a quest to find his father and a new wealthy life as Youssef Amrani. His father betrays him just as Rachida predicts. His search for identity and a role in life is the search of many young people in Morocco. The shortage of jobs, young men on street corners and old men sitting in cafés in the evening is ever present.

This is a wide ranging novel, brilliantly written in superb English and full of ironic twists and finely observed social comment. As Nabil takes Youssef in he tells him that his study of English literature is useless and Youssef's strong grasp of French which his mother has taught him gives him an entre into the upper classes-the "Mercedes and Malboros" as described in his unversity. A brief affair with a rich girl surrounded by wealth and her family, shows the shallowness of high society and should act as a warning to Youssef.

The contrast between the slum of Hay An Najat and the plush district of Anfa is vividly drawn as are the sharp divisions between rich and poor which are graphically observed.

"Secret Son" has strong social commentary on Morocco. The education system is condemned as graduates find no jobs and a sense of hope being stiffled and failing to provide a future for its young people.

Nabil has to confront his daughter Amal in America who is living with an American of Brazilian origin who is clearly in his eyes not a good match. Amal allows herself to be persuaded by her mother to return home to Casablanca to live with the family and to reject her boyfriend Fernando. However she rebels against the hollowness of her parent's lives and chooses to return to have the freedom with her chosen partner. She has no illusions about America with its prejudice against Arabs but she has no hesitation in returning and choosing freedom with Fernando and rejecting her parent's authority.

Nabil loses both his daughter and his son whom he discards. In his emptiness he finds the strength to write a letter of support for the campaigning journalist Benaboud who is under attack by the authorities. He overcomes his fear and recognises that the older generation should make a positive contribution to politics instead of making it "the occasional subject of a game of golf". He recognises how he has lost his youthful idealism. Rachida colluding with Nabil's wife so that Youssef is turned away by Nabil, loses her son to the evil of the "Party".

The portrayal of the islamist "Party" and its cynical subversion of Youssef and Amin so that they agree to assasinate the journalist Benahoud, is graphically described and shows the danger to young Moroccans. The police stand by whilst the journalist Benahoud is murdered and Youssef Mekkli having finally found himself and accepted who he is, faces imprisonment or death.

This novel will not be easy reading for many in Morocco but there are moments when a book makes a profound and important statement on society and its values and Secret Son is such a book.