“Houris”: the courage of Kamel Daoud crowned by a Goncourt

Published on 4/11/2024 at 3:46 p.m.
Reading time: 3 min

LThe Goncourt favorite wins this year: Hourisby Kamel Daoud, was announced almost everywhere and, despite some contradictory wishes, there was no surprise with a majority of votes acquired in the first round, which is a change from the fourteen rounds and the vote of the president necessary in the previous two years.

Nine years after Goncourt’s first novel attributed to Meursault, counter-investigationKamel Daoud therefore crosses the expected threshold for an uncomfortable but essential novel, probably awarded more for its courage than for its literary qualities.

The setting of the book: the 90s in Algeria and the terrible civil war that tore the country apart. Terror reigns, about which it is forbidden to speak – and this is where the author shows courage. Testimonies do not exist, speech is prevented. Kamel Daoud himself, and his publisher Gallimard in the process, guilty of having violated this law, were also excluded from the recent Algiers Book Fair.

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