Like the "halaiqui," the ritual storyteller of Mogador who transports his listeners to other worlds, Alberto Ruy-Sanchez invites his reader to accompany the protagonist of "En los labios del agua" on his journey to search for the ancient manuscripts of the Arabic calligrapher Aziz Al Gazali, founder of the "Sonambulos," a caste of men and women for whom desire is the compass which determines their destiny. While the quest for desire is embodied in a feminine protagonist in the author's first novel, "Los nombres del aire," in his second novel, the infinite forms of desire, longing, and love are explored by a male protagonist whose name, Juan Amado, reveals his fundamental obsession. The reader who accepts the author's invitation to penetrate the labyrinth of this novel, which is constructed with manuscripts, letters, notebooks, poems, calligraphy, dreams, and memories, should abandon conventional narrative expectations, and prepare to linger over the poetic prose which spills onto the page like the water of a fountain.

In its simplist form the novel is a long love letter written by Juan Amado to Maimuna, the woman at the center of his quest for desire. A whirlwind of erotic possessions carries the protagonist to many lands throughout the world, and finally to the Morrocan city of Mogador, where Aziz Al Gazali wrote his treatises on love so many years ago. As the reader puts together the fragments of this mosaic of desire, the image which emerges is a portrait of the narrator, a Mexican writer who traces his origins from the desert of Sonora to the sands of the Sahrara, and discovers in the Arabic world the seeds of his own roots and those of his ancestors. As he writes the story of his search for a lost paradise, Juan Amado discovers, as does the reader, that words evoked by desire have the power to cross oceans and deserts, erasing distance and time in their effort to reach the beloved. For those readers who enjoyed "Los nombres del aire," the author's second novel offers another opportunity to experience pleasure in Alberto Ruy-Sanchez's imaginary city of desire.

Alberto Ruy Sánchez made, in this book, the same magic as in the others. A wonderful, intriguing book to read in any period of your life. An exotic city filled whith passion, a strange world of love an spices. The book smells of heat and lust. A novel so pure, so wild in it's own world, it seems as if written by nature itself.

This Non-Fiction book can be seen as a documentary novel whose characters are mainly poets facing a battle for enlightment and creative sincerity. Many of them in the middle of very hostile forces. The searchs by Pasolini, Rilke, Mandelstam, Yourcenar, Beckett and many others are told here as Gothic tales from wich we can see and reach our own exits from melancholy. Reading this book we find ourselves into a world of intense discoveries. We can see why Octavio Paz considered this author the best mexican essayist. He is the author of several novels on desire. Three of them are my pillow books: Mogador or the names of the air, En los labios del agua, Los jardines secretos de Mogador.

La antigua ciudad de Mogador, actualmente Essauira, es una de las más bellas poblaciones de la costa atlántica de Marruecos.
Alberto Ruy Sánchez visitó más de 500 jardines en diferentes lugares del mundo para escribir este libro. Pero como si los hubiera creado en su mente los plasma con palabras de una manera tan detallada que el lector logra imaginar cada uno de esos lugares.
Es un libro lleno de olores que perfuman los sentidos, sabores que te deleitan mientras viajas a lugares exóticos. Mediante el lenguaje crea un ambiente de sensualidad en el cual se percibe la pasión de los sonámbulos.

Again and again I am surprised and seduced by the Spelling Stories of this amazing Novelist and Poet, author of the breathtaking books: "Mogador, The names of the air (City Lights editor.), and "On Lips of water" (Santillana, Ed. as "En los Labios del agua"). This time, Mogador, the well known City of Desire is inhabited by the Garden Stories of Jassiba's Lover, transformed by her absolute and radical Desire in a new male Shajarazad, menaced of erotic death. Each Night of Love is exchanged only for a new Imaginary Garden, the Tale of Someone's Paradise. He becomes a better reader of the most intense Desires in the World, thus a better reader of her Desires. The World is translated in his Tales into an Erotic Poem adressed to Jassiba. We witness the initiation of this lover poet, and go with him, moving through words, through time, through nature in a way that seems at once precise and full of imagination. One of the most amazing book on the Sense of Wonder and Desire that we can read now.

When I went into the pages of this book I discovered a new way of understanding my senses and my desires. As important as learning how to read, through the lenses of a poetic an sensous adventure. Telling us the story of Fatma, in the imaginary and walled city of Mogador, this book opens a question about women's desire that only each one of us, women readers, can answer. This is a masterpiece of subtility, a book to share with the dearest persons, a tale to read and read again. I found an english translation of this book as Mogador, published in San Francisco by City Lights. The sequel's title of Los nombres del aire is En los labios del agua. I could not find an english translation. Anyway, both books exists in french. Les visages de l'air, and Les levres de l'eau. An amazing experience for the senses more than a text to read.

Mogador is a Latin American novel set in an imaginary city (Mogador) that belongs in North Africa - complete with an Islamic or Mozarabic culture. It is a tale of sensual self-awareness of a young woman in a cloistered environment. Sanchez's sensual awareness and the ability to convert that awareness into words is sufficient justification to read the book. As a bonus, one does become interested in the young woman (Fatima) as well.

This is the first time I read a book by a man that goes deep into my sexual feelings. Daring and respectful at the same time, sharp and poetic. I want to read all his books. But only found this one (in my favorite bookstore...). This is an author listening to women's desires. I want to meet him.

When I went into the pages of Mogador I discovered a new way of understanding my senses and my desires. As important as learning how to read,through the lenses of a poetic an sensous adventure. Telling thestory of Fatma, in the imaginary and walled city of Mogador, this book opens a question about women's desire that only each one of us,women readers, can answer. This is a masterpiece of subtility, a book to share with the dearest persons, a tale to read and read again. I found a sequel of Mogador in other languages. It's title in spanish is Los nombres del aire. The sequel's title is En los labios del agua. Both books exists in french. Les visages de l'air and Les levres de l'eau. An amazing experience for the senses more than a text to read.