The cultural guest is the writer Kamel Daoud, winner of the 2024 Goncourt Prize for his third novel Hourispublished by Gallimard. A powerful fiction which looks back on the dark decade in Algeria through the story of a young woman named Aube, whose throat was slit at the age of 5 by terrorists and who miraculously survived.
Kamel Daoud, born in 1970 in Mesra, Algeria, is a French-speaking Algerian writer and journalist. After obtaining a scientific baccalaureate, he continued his studies in French literature at the University of Oran.
In 1994, Kamel Daoud began his journalistic career at Oran Dailya French-speaking Algerian newspaper. He published his first column there three years later, entitled Raina Raikoum (« Our opinion, your opinion “). He became editor-in-chief of the newspaper for eight years, during which he enjoyed great freedom of expression, despite political and social constraints.
Alongside his career as a journalist, Kamel Daoud embarked on literary writing. His first novel, Meursault, counter-investigation (2013), is a rewrite of the famous The Stranger by Albert Camus, seen from the point of view of the anonymous Arab killed by Meursault. This novel earned him the Goncourt Prize for first novel in 2015, as well as the François-Mauriac Prize and the Prize of the Five Continents of La Francophonie.
In 2024, Kamel Daoud publishes Hourisa work that explores themes of religion, freedom and identity. This novel is praised by critics for its depth and originality. Daoud continues to question existential and societal questions, offering his readers a profound reflection on the contemporary world. His novel won the 2024 Goncourt Prize and was selected in 2024 for the Goncourt Prize for high school students.
Also readThe 2024 Goncourt Prize awarded to Kamel Daoud for “Houris”, a novel about the “dark years” of Algeria
« I am the real trace, the strongest evidence attesting to everything we have experienced in ten years in Algeria. I hide the history of an entire war, written on my skin since I was a child. »
Aube is a young Algerian who must remember the war of independencewhich she did not experience, and forget the civil war of the 1990s, which she herself went through. His tragedy is marked on his body: a scar on his neck and destroyed vocal cords. Mute, she dreams of finding her voice again. She can only tell her story to the girl she carries in her womb. But does she have the right to keep this child? Can you give life when it has almost been taken from you? In a country that has passed laws to punish anyone who mentions the civil war, Aube decides to go to his native village, where it all began, and where the dead will perhaps answer him. (Presentation by Gallimard editions)
Also readThe 2024 Goncourt Prize awarded to Kamel Daoud for “Houris”, a novel about the “dark years” of Algeria
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