New book explores fractures of self and world in four stories

Houssine Marouani’s new collection, “Instincts and Destinies,” places characters under pressure from war, displacement and moral choice. Published by Dar Ethakafia, the book contains four stories: “The Siren of Beit Hanoun,” “The Refugee,” “Steps and Thorns,” and “Scheherazade.”

Marouani, a writer and emeritus secondary-school teacher, is also the author of works including “Dictionary of Quotations,” published in 2007, and the 2026 play “Autumn.” In the new collection, he gives psychological examination priority over the rapid action often associated with short stories.

The longest story follows Axel, an Israeli army soldier who abandons a deadly mission. Marouani presents the decision not as cowardice or betrayal, but as “the story of an awakening and a struggle for peace.” Axel has been conditioned to hate and told by his commanders that his actions are legitimate self-defense. After years in what the author describes as an army constantly at war, he begins to see a limit to disorder, destruction and violence.

Caught between universal human principles and military duty, Axel meets Jihad and his sister Amal while facing a decision that will change his fate. The collection carries the same psychological tension into “The Refugee,” which follows a bus carrying survivors of conflicts in Iraq to a refugee camp.

Its central figures are Sadok, a former journalist and children’s storyteller who has lost his family, and Faiza, a 12-year-old girl seeking a way forward without hers. Together, they create an imagined world where they might be protected from collective horrors and massacres. The story then forces Sadok to reassess his ideals.

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the story of an awakening and a struggle for peace