“My brother Sansal is behind bars, like the whole of Algeria”

Mhis friend, the Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, was arrested. I knew it little by little, I refused to know it at the same pace. I learned about it first from friends. The evidence disguises itself as concern. Repetitive calls, questions and messages like this « he no longer responds » were spinning in a loop, like pebbles in our void. I was in a French town to “sign”, “to speak”. Night fell very quickly and I struggled to come back to reality, to emerge. I couldn't believe it. Would they dare? For a week, defamations, attacks, insults, trials have been raining down from the new Algeria.

« Being a writer and an Algerian are two difficult jobs », I often repeated to listeners. This made the room laugh. Sometimes I laughed too…