Shortlisted for the award, Kamel Daoud is indeed the winner of the 2024 Goncourt Prize. His novel Hourispublished by Gallimard, won over both the jury and the readers, with sales already approaching 70,000 copies, according to Edistat.
Lifting the omerta in Algeria
Through the character of Aube, a young Algerian hairdresser, Kamel Daoud gives body and voice to the victims of a still unspoken civil war. Dawn, is marked by a tragedy: the massacre of her family, of which she is the only survivor, on the night of December 31, 1999 in her village of Had Chekala, near Algiers. From this disastrous night, she keeps a deep scar on her face and a silence imposed by the violence of the past. Her sister, murdered before her eyes, embodies for her a pain that will be forever engraved.
CHRONICLE – Houris by Kamel Daoud, finalist for the Prix Goncourt 2024
This event is erased from official history by article 46 of the Charter on Peace and National Reconciliation, which prohibits any mention of this war at the risk of sanctions. But when she discovers her pregnancy, Aube faces heartbreaking questions: can she offer life after having come close to death? To search for answers, she returns to her hometown, where it all began, hoping that the lost souls will give her the strength to find her own voice.
Hourisbetween honors and controversies
Beyond its narrative intensity, Houris addresses political subjects, such as censorship around the civil war, or the place of women in Islam and Muslim societies. By revisiting the myth of the houris, these virgins promised to believers in the afterlife, Kamel Daoud also questions the taboos around sexuality, virginity and religious norms. This novel, through its commitment, highlights still sensitive subjects, where the female figure oscillates between fantasy and reality in the contemporary Arab world.
Important and still delicate subjects, which led Gallimard editions to be refused access to certain trade fairs. On October 9, ActuaLitté learned that the Gallimard house was excluded, without explanation, from the Algiers Book Fair. Antoine Gallimard himself was surprised: “We have just learned that we are banned from attending the Algiers show.”
READ – Gallimard editions banned from the Algiers Book Fair
It is difficult not to see, among other things, a punishment following the publication of the new Goncourt 2024 prize. But these hypotheses remained at the questioning stage, for lack of additional justifications.
Jacarandaby Gaël Faye, defeated
It is in this climate of tension that Kamel Daoud triumphed against three other finalists: Jacaranda of Gael Faye (Grasset), Madelaine before dawn by Sandrine Collette (JC Lattès) and Archipelagos by Hélène Gaudy (L’Olivier).
The jury, now chaired by Philippe Claudel, who took over from Didier Decoin in May 2024, included among its members Pascal Bruckner, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Camille Laurens (general secretary), Pierre Assouline, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Françoise Chandernagor ( vice-president) and Christine Angot, who joined the academy in March, following the withdrawal for health reasons of Patrick Rambaud in February. Paule Constant, reached by the age limit, was named honorary member.
In the interest of neutrality, the jurors refrained from any public criticism of the books in the running, in order to avoid influencing the judgment of other critics or disrupting the predictions.
Le Goncourt, springboard for record sales
Despite the absence of any notable financial endowment – the winner of the Goncourt symbolically receives ten euros – the prize guarantees strong visibility and significant sales. The most secret memory of men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, winner in 2021, has sold more than 550,000 copies, according to Edistat. The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier, published by Gallimard, is close to 1.5 million copies in paperback, continuing its phenomenal success.
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Jean-Baptiste Andrea, 2023 winner with Watch over hersold nearly 570,000 copies before its paperback release, while Brigitte Giraud, rewarded for Live fastreached 300,000 sales in all formats combined.
Image credits: F. Mantovani © Éditions Gallimard
FILE – Selections, juries, winners: the 2024 literary season awards
By Louella Boulland
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