The Goncourt Academy suspends the 7th edition of the Goncourt Choice of Algeria

There will be no 7^e edition of the Goncourt Choice of Algeria in 2025. In a press release, the Goncourt Academy indicated Tuesday, December 3 that it “ can only accept Houris of Camel Daoudone of the novels on the Goncourt list on which the jurors must vote, is banned in this country and its publisher banned from the Algiers Book Fair. »

For the record, the Algiers Book Fair (Sila), which ended on November 16, had notified Gallimard Editions, which publish Kamel Daoud’s Books, of a ban on participating in the event.

Winner of the 2024 Goncourt Prize, Houris takes place during the Algerian civil war between 1992 and 2002. It is banned from publication in the country, whose legislation prohibits any debate or critical look at the events of the “black decade. »

« At the time when the writer Boualem Sansal is arbitrarily incarcerated because of his writings and comments, {the Academy} reaffirms its condemnation of any attack on freedom of expression », Adds the press release.

The 7^e edition of the Goncourt Choice of Algeria was supposed to open in March 2025 with the reading of the books in the selection and meetings to exchange and share reading impressions before an announcement of the winner which was to take place in July.

In 2023, it was Jean-Baptiste Andrea, already crowned with the Goncourt Prize, who won the votes of the jury made up of around a hundred young Algerian readers, most of them students or high school students.