The point of Decline is the title of Fatiha Morchid’s new novel, published by the Cultural Book Center, Beirut / Casablanca, 2022.

With her unique style and her usual audacity, Fatiha Morchid delves deep into the dark realms of American society and comes up with an accurate analysis of the “American Dream” which has turned into a nightmare for many people, shedding light on the world of marginalized groups and the tragic reality of the homeless. She does so through the character of a Moroccan immigrant who reached the pinnacle of success before he began his journey of decline.

We read on the back cover:

I can hardly believe that I am here, a few kilometers away from Silicon Valley, the technology capital of the world… from the prestigious Stanford University and the digital GAFA giants (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon).. I wonder: How is it possible that the country that produced the largest number of scientists, researchers, and Nobel Prize winners, and that attracts the world’s smartest minds, is the same country that produces the largest number of homeless people?

I knew that the United States of America excelled in elevating people, but I also never doubted that it excelled in knocking them down.

The point of decline is a novel that shatters the myth of the “American dream” by reconsidering questions of immigration, identity and the meaning of success, through a moving story that confirms the idea that each ascent contains within itself the causes decline.

Fatiha Morchid, winner of the 2010 Morocco Poetry Prize, is both a poet and a novelist. A pediatrician by profession, she prepared and presented a health care education program on the Moroccan TV channel 2M, along with a poetry show called “Moment of Poetry” on the same channel.

She is a member of the Union of Moroccan Writers and has so far published nine poetry books that were translated into several languages, a collection of short stories titled As Love Is Not Enough and six best-selling novels:  Just a Few Moments, 2007, Fun’s Claws, 2009, The Muses, 2011, The Right to Leave, 2013, The Twins, 2016 and The Heir of secrets, 2019.