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Last year, I advanced Mahi Binebine���Ĵ�ý�s Horses of God, tr. from the French by Lulu Norman, for The Best Translated Book Award a book that follows the lives of a group of teenage soccer players from Sidi Moumen who become Islamist martyrs, suicide bombers in the 2003 Casablanca attacks.

This year I���Ĵ�ý�m championing Street of Thieves by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell, in which one of the main characters becomes involved with an Islamist group turned Jihadist.

I hope that I���Ĵ�ý�m not developing a pattern ���Ĵ�ý� not the French translation part, the radicalism part.

Street of Thieves is a coming-of-age story of two childhood friends set mostly in Tangiers during the Arab Spring. Lakhdar, the narrator, wants freedom ���Ĵ�ý� to travel, smoke weed, earn money, read French noir detective novels, have sex with Spanish women. His friend, Bassam, introduces Lakhdar to the ���Ĵ�ý�Group for the Propagation for Islamic Thought���Ĵ�ý� for whom he becomes their seller of books and pamphlets.

After the organization severely beats a neighborhood bookseller, their paths split, Lakhdar moves away, Bassam gets deeply into the group. Bassam might be involved in a stabbing in Tangiers, a bombing in Marrakesh, and ultimately an assassination.

���Ĵ�ý�Men are dogs,���Ĵ�ý� says Lakhdar, ���Ĵ�ý�they rub against each other in misery, they roll around in filth and can���Ĵ�ý�t get out of it���Ĵ�ý����Ĵ�ý� Exiled from his family because of an indiscretion with his cousin, Lakhdar starts with nothing, lives on the street, takes a series of jobs, goes on the run, falls in love, and ends up in a Barcelona neighborhood of junkies and prostitutes, the Street of Thieves.

Lots of big words ���Ĵ�ý� fate, fear, corruption, revolution, liberty, love and loyalty and tragedy, but no theme bigger than identity. Is Lakhdar more than his religion? More than his nationality? In the final pages of the book, he testifies ���Ĵ�ý�I am not a Moroccan, I am not a Frenchman, I���Ĵ�ý�m not a Spaniard, I���Ĵ�ý�m more than that . . . I am not a Muslim, I am more than that.���Ĵ�ý�

Love of language, the study of language, the beauty of language are all manifested in the book. Love of books ���Ĵ�ý� ���Ĵ�ý�which is the only place on earth where life is good���Ĵ�ý� ���Ĵ�ý� certainly won this judge over.

Street of Thieves should win The Best Translated Book Award because Énard has filtered multiple complex social issues through the eyes of a wonderfully likable narrator. If I���Ĵ�ý�ve made that sound dreadfully serious, it���Ĵ�ý�s my mistake.