This is the best performing book in recent weeks! Last November 4, Kamel Daoud made the headlines of the press, thanks to his book Hourispublished by Gallimard editions. Indeed, it is this work which was named the 2024 Goncourt Prize. A prestigious award for an author, which propels him to the forefront. In this work, the writer returns to the story of a deaf Algerian woman. Pregnant, she is convinced that her child will be a girl. Living in the middle of a civil war in the 90s, the young woman doesn't know if she should keep her baby.
The moving story recounts painful facts. But now Kamel Daoud finds himself in a major controversy today. If his book is banned in Algeria, the author is accused of plagiarism. Indeed, in the Algerian media, we can read several articles about a woman who accuses the author of having simply stolen her personal story. According to the statements of Saâda Arbane, the work is inspired by his life : “the scar on his neck, the physical after-effects of a failed throat slitting, the absence of voice, the trauma of a family massacre, but also personal details such as his journey to the hospital, his care in France, or even his relationship with her mother and the difficulties she encountered in surviving after the dark decade”she confides.
Kamel Daoud and his wife are then targeted for “violation of medical confidentiality”, but also for “violation of the law on national reconciliation”. Indeed, this second point takes its source from an article which prohibits the evocation of the “wounds of the national tragedy”, linked to this period of civil war in Algeria between 1992 and 2002. The writer has already mentioned this sensitive point and his presence was not authorized at the Algiers International Book Fair.
The publishing house strikes back
Faced with so much controversy, its publisher, Antoine Gallimard, denounced “violent defamatory campaigns orchestrated by certain media close to a regime, the nature of which is well known“. A huge controversy therefore for the writer who nevertheless enjoys enormous success in France. Following interviews in the press and on television sets, Kamel Daoud wishes to make his work an ode to freedom. But will he be able to recover from this scandal in Algeria, where he is criticized from all sides?
