The 2024 Goncourt Prize, announced this November 4 at the Drouant restaurant in Paris, was awarded this year to Kamel Daoud's novel, “Houris”. A novel that follows the story of Aube, a young girl who was mute following a failed throat slitting during the civil war between 1992 and 2002.
That's it, the prestigious Goncourt Prize 2024 just fell! This was awarded to the writer and journalist Camel Daoud for his work Houris. The author, rewarded for his third novel, received this distinction as part of a ceremony which took place at the famous Parisian restaurant Drouantlocated in the 2nd arrondissement of the capital. Houris is a work which stands out for the content of its subject, banned in Algeria because it evokes the civil war between 1992 and 2022. This novel follows the consecration of Watch over her of Jean-Baptiste Andrea in 2023, in a context of internal dissensions within the Goncourt jury.
In detail, Houris immerses readers in the horror of the massacres of the “dark decade” in Algeria. The story centers on Aube, a young girl left mute following a failed attempt at slitting her throat at the age of 5. The novel, published by Gallimard“gives voice to the suffering linked to a dark period in Algeria, that of women in particular“, explain Philippe Claudelbig boss of Goncourt. And to continue: “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“.
The journey of Camel Daoud is just as fascinating as his writings, recognized for his incisive style and his fine analysis of Algerian society. Born in 1970 in Mostaganem, he first became known as a journalist at Oran Dailywhere he distinguished himself through his engaged and critical columns. His first novel, Meursault, counter-investigationpublished in 2013, revisits the world of The Stranger d’Albert Camus and has received numerous awards, saluting his literary audacity and his reflection on identity and postcolonial memory. Prolific writer, Camel Daoud continued to explore issues of religion, culture, and politics in his essays and novels, attracting a wide international audience.
A recognition that adds to its price of secularism obtained in 2020. All you have to do is find the novel now in any good bookstore!
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