“The story begins there…”, by Kamel Daoud, Goncourt Prize 2024

Yesterday evening, during the private dinner organized in his honor at Gallimard, Kamel Daoud, winner of the 2024 Goncourt prize for “Houris”, engaged in a little improvisation exercise on his beginnings as a writer. He offered his words to “New Obs”.

“I know the end, it’s not the end. It’s a happy ending for now. But the beginning of the story goes back further.

I was nine years old and had only one comic book. I read it, reread, reread, reread. (I happened to reread the same novel fourteen times, because we didn’t have television.) And I tell myself that the story begins there because I wrote a letter to a French publisher. At the time I was drawing, I stopped since, but I sent two or three little kid’s boards. And two months later, I received a package of books addressed by this French publisher to the little kid in my village. I can say that the story begins there.

I can also say that the story begins at the age of twelve. I knew the last Jew in Mostaganem, he was a bookseller. I had about 50 dinars a week that my father, a gendarme, gave me. I went to the bookseller and he rented me books. He took a deposit of 20 dinars. I read a lot of books that I gave back to get back the 20 dinars. I can say that the story begins there too.

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I can also say that the story begins the first time I read “In a Doubtful Fight” (1936) by John Steinbeck. He was missing exactly 130 pages. So I knew the end of the story, but not the beginning. I can say it started there because I didn’t even need to know the author anymore. The book does not need an author.

I can also say that the story begins at university. I arrived, I was bored because I had read all of Balzac at eleven years old and when I arrived at the Algerian university we were asked to do reading sheets on Balzac. That means I read it when I was a kid… I can say that the story begins there.

I can go further. I can say that the story begins in Tunisia. The day I met Leïla Slimani, we emptied a bottle and she said to me: “Why don’t you come to Gallimard?” I said: “Will they accept me?” She answered me: “I’ll take care of it.” And she did.

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I can also say that the story begins the day I was received at Antoine Gallimard’s office and we talked about Parisian backbiting, misunderstandings, people who spoke for him, against me, for and against… I can also say that it begins the day I met Karina Hocine, who I did not yet know would be my editor, that she would welcome me and adopt me into my editorial orphanage. I can say that the story begins there.

So, I don’t know where the story starts, I don’t know where it’s going to end. But for now, it’s a very beautiful story thanks to you. Thank you all. »