CIt’s a book that can also give meaning to what we experience in that country. But it was born because I came to France. Because it’s a country that gives me the freedom to write”, greeted the 54-year-old Franco-Algerian, at the Drouant restaurant in Paris, where the Goncourt is presented.
France “is a country that protects writers”, greeted the man whose freedom of tone ended up forcing him to leave his city of Oran for Paris and take French nationality.
Houris cannot be published in Algeria, where it falls under the law which prohibits any work evoking the civil war of 1992-2002.
“A book where lyricism competes with tragedy”
After the romance Watch over her by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, awarded last year, the Académie Goncourt has chosen a more political and “crowns a book where lyricism competes with tragedy”.
Houris (Gallimard) “gives voice to the suffering linked to a dark period in Algeria, that of women in particular. This novel shows how literature, in its high freedom of auscultation of reality, its emotional density, traces, alongside the historical story of a people, another path of memory”, greeted Philippe Claudel, head of the Goncourt jury.
Houris, which in the Muslim faith designates young girls promised to paradise, is a dark novel about the fate of Aube, a young woman who has been mute since an Islamist slit her throat on December 31, 1999.
Choosing a woman as narrator, Kamel Daoud places the plot first in Oran, the city where he was a journalist during the “black decade”, then in the Algerian desert, where Aube leaves to return to her village.
“Knowing what writers experience on the other side of the wall of our democracies, it is a strong signal for all the people who are tempted by this adventure”
Camel Daoud
In an already tense diplomatic context between France and Algeria, Gallimard was asked not to go to the Algiers International Book Fair, from November 6 to 16, a decision which caused quite a stir.
“Currently, with what is happening all over the world, highlighting a writer, a piece of writing, about war, with such issues, is something admirable.”, noted Kamel Daoud, thanking Goncourt who chose him in the first round, by six votes.
“Knowing what writers experience on the other side of the wall of our democracies, it is a strong signal for all people who are tempted by this adventure, that of writing and publishing, and of reading too.”, he further underlined.
Its publisher Antoine Gallimard praised “the political and civil role” endorsed by the author. “I am amazed by this strength he has, this calm and the words he chooses”, he assured AFP.
Kamel Daoud was in the running against Gaël Faye, ultimately winner of the Renaudot for his second novel Jacarandaa best-selling book, and two lesser-known authors: Sandrine Collette and Hélène Gaudy.
Also present in Drouant, the Franco-Rwandan writer and singer spoke of resonances between his novel and Goncourt: “Houris et Jacarandathese are books that talk about the 1990s, they are also conflicts (…) So were the 30 years which separate us from the event a necessary time to be able, us as writers, ( …) put words to this violence that happened?”
“With their voices, our French language expresses beauty, tragedy, the universal even better”, commented President Emmanuel Macron on X.
Beyond the pride of adding one’s name to the list, the Goncourt Prize is an economic issue. It is rewarded with a check for 10 euros, which the winners traditionally choose to frame, but above all it allows the sale of hundreds of thousands of copies of a book that many readers will be curious to discover or offer as gifts. , and it paved the way for numerous translations throughout the world.
Pour Hourisaround fifteen were already “considered”, indicated Antoine Gallimard. Now, this figure “will surely double”.
