 Lalami's second book, the novel "Secret Son" (2009), is a coming-of-age story set in the slums of Casablanca.A young college student named Youssef El Mekki discovers that his father—whom he'd been led to believe was a high school teacher, and dead for many years—is in fact a businessman and lives across town.But Youssef's burgeoning relationship with his father, and his sudden change in fortune, are threatened by social and political unrest in the city.