Old Masters in Marrakesh

Max Marwell is caught between running his global art business and dealing with his own past and that of the Jewish people. Born and raised in Linz, Austria, the hometown of Hitler and Adolf Eichmann, he is obsessed with avenging the deaths of his parents and the restitution of looted art by the Nazis. Masterpieces are traced, bought and transported to Casablanca and Marrakesh, involving exciting chases through North Africa and France. Max’s adventures entangle him with a murder case, haunted by French police and Interpol. The novel offers a peek into the art world and the way it sometimes overlaps with less salubrious circles.

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Set in Morocco and Britain at the end of 1969, the year of UK decimalisation and the Moon Landing, the novel examines how people who are inclusive and forward-looking thrive at these moments of change. At the time, Marrakesh was a meeting point for visionaries like Yves Saint Laurent and romantics looking for a continuation of the summer of love. Internationally renowned art dealer Max Marwell wishes for his son to take over his Mayfair art gallery, but the younger Marwell is an addict. Max is shipping art but also pure heroin within the crated masterpieces; this is so his son does not die from a bad dose. As the world winds into the 1970s, and as Max finds new love and breaks away from vengeance, the world of the Marwells changes drastically.

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Cover image: © Goran Baba Ali

A modified photo taken in Marrakesh

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