Since he won the Goncourt for his novel “Houris”, Kamel Daoud has been the subject of vigorous criticism. “Defamatory” attacks against which its publisher Gallimard protests.
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Journalist at the Culture department
By Jean-Claude VantroyenPublished on 11/19/2024 at 3:28 p.m.
Reading time: 1 min
Ct is the “literary affair” of the moment. Much more than the ban on Houris in Algeria, or the refusal of the Algiers Book Fair to receive Kamel Daoud and Gallimard; ultimately could we expect a different attitude from a regime which banned all publication on the civil war which caused 200,000 deaths in the 1990s in Algeria? Here, it is a woman, an Algerian, who accuses the writer of having stolen her dramatic story.
Houris says Dawn. Her throat was slit on the night of December 31, 1999 on 1is January 2000, she survived but her vocal cords were destroyed. Obvious symbol of obligatory silence. She speaks, she writes, she carries the history of torn Algeria. She opened a hair salon in this Algeria dedicated to strict Koranic laws. And she talks to her baby, Houri, who she carries in her womb, deciding that she would be a girl.
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