Khatibi's image of the father is problematic, even inconstant. It is marked by absence and substitutes such as the faquih, the teacher, etc. in "La mémoire tatouée". In "Le livre du sang", however, the image becomes symbolic and takes on three different facets: the real, the symbolic and the imaginary, according to Lacanian terminology. Abdelkébir Khatibi rewrites his biography to correct his negative paternity. He seeks a symbolic elsewhere in the book of blood to express otherness and deterritorialisation.