Abdelkader Benali

ABOUT ABDELKADER BENALI

Moroccan-Dutch journalist and fiction writer. He has written about running, both fictionally and journalistically. He also writes about art, and delves into crime thrillers and other genres.

He began publishing his writing with the 1996 work Bruiloft aan zee (Wedding by the Sea).

He is an avid long-distance runner, his personal record being 2:52:19 in the marathon. He also wrote a book about his failed attempt to improve his best result, Marathonloper (Marathon Runner).

He was born in Morocco. At four years old, he and his family, of Berber background, migrated from north Morocco to The Netherlands and settled in Rotterdam, where his father worked as a butcher. In spite of his family's Muslim faith and being brought up in that tradition, he is a non-believer.

His fiction falls into the same vein of fellow Moroccan-born writer Laila Lalami . His focus on running aligns him with Haruki Murakami and Malcolm Gladwell .