Houris, by Kamel Daoud: the promise of Dawn

Houris, by Kamel Daoud: the promise of Dawn
Houris,
      by
      Kamel
      Daoud:
      the
      promise
      of
      Dawn
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THE CHRONICLE OF ETIENNE DE MONTETY – Daoud’s book has the force of a wadi in flood after a terrible storm called civil war. Impetuous, unpredictable, fascinating, it sweeps everything away in its path.

Her name is Faj, “Dawn” in French. As a child, she survived a massacre and a throat-slitting that nearly killed her. She has an open wound and a cannula. This stigma is a painful memory of the violence that ravaged Algeria in the 1990s. “I hide the story of an entire war, written on my skin since I was a child. Those who can read will understand when they see the scandal of my eyes and the monstrosity of my smile.”

Aube is pregnant with Houri, it is to her that the young mother deprived of voice addresses herself, throughout this novel which bears her first name; the houris are the women promised by the Koran to the faithful who will access paradise. But, in fact of paradise, Aube will tell the unborn child about the years of hell that the country has known. Her story is the promise of a new morning for Algeria.

Also readDiscover The Blood of Wildflowers, the unpublished short story by Alice Develey

In Oran, she ran a hair salon, opposite the mosque. Women came to her place to make themselves beautiful…

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