Goncourt banned from sale in Algeria and at the Algiers Book Fair

After Kamel Daoud obtained the Goncourt, his publisher Antoine Gallimard returned to the ban on the publishing house's attendance at the Algiers book fair and the ban on the sale of the book in Algeria.

The ban on attendance at the Algiers book fair was notified to Editions Gallimard at the beginning of October, while Houris, the novel by the Franco-Algerian on the violence of “black decade”, the civil war of 1992-2002, was one of the favorites for the Prix Goncourt. This Monday, November 4, while this novel won the prize, Antoine Gallimard deplored the ban on the book in Algeria, where it is illegal to sell works relating to this period. “It’s unfortunate. And it’s also unfortunate, moreover, since Algeria prevented us from being present at the Book Fair,” he commented, interviewed by AFP.

“But I think that in Algeria they are strong enough to find a way to read it differently,” added the boss of the Madrigall group, in reference to the pirate editions circulating.

Asked about the dialogue he could have had with the organizers of the Book Fair, he replied that there had been none “none”. “We tried but they didn't answer, there was no one there. The law of silence”, he explained.

Jurors of the Goncourt Prize denied that this ban on the novel influenced their choice. “We absolutely should not see this book, nor even its consecration by the Académie Goncourt, as a vindictive political gesture against a friendly country”underlined the president of the jury, Philippe Claudel. “And I think that literature, precisely, can make it possible to reestablish, to sew up links that some people are too inclined to want to tear, or perhaps have an interest in seeing torn,” he added.

“I don’t believe at all that there is a desire for confrontation”commented, for her part, Christine Angot, another juror. “We have a voice. It's the only voice that says what needs to be said. So we can't ignore it, recognize it, bow down. We can't pretend we don't hear what he says”, she said about Kamel Daoud.