Arabic title: "Al-Khubz al-Hafi"

Account of the harsh youth of the author. Mistreated by his father, illiterate and famished, he escaped home into a life of criminality and pure survival. Later on in his life he met people who inspired him to learn how to read and write. This enabled him to write this account of his early life and teenage years.
A rough account, written in short sentences and in a very direct style, which makes it at times a little unpleasant and uncomfortable to read. It is not the kind of book that you read for literary beauty or that you read while drinking a glass of good wine. There is very little friendliness and beauty in the life of the narrator. Through his style he smashes his misery in your face. I thought that was very well done, even if it was unpleasant. Strange reading experience... ( )

This is a bleak journey through the early life of the author, translated by Paul Bowles. It describes the crippling poverty of Choukri’s childhood and young adulthood. The language is sparse and simplistic, befitting the hand-to-mouth existence of Choukri’s life. As the title implies, he lived ‘For Bread Alone’, with every penny he could scrape together keeping him alive and fed for just one more day. His life was devoid of escapism and pleasure, the exception being occasional moments of sexual fantasy and release, and the book amply describes a life without hope or ambition, a life stripped to its bare bones of simply continuing to breathe. It finishes with Choukri’s decision to learn to read and write, a decision he took in his twenties that allowed him to produce this book. It was a fascinating read, almost (but not quite, in my opinion) as good as Bowles’ translation of Driss ben Ahmed Charadi’s ‘A Life Full of Holes’, which deals with similar themes. The style completely befits the subject, allowing the reader to immerse in Choukri’s world. It isn’t a nice place, but is worth a visit.