Prix Goncourt: Algeria silent after civil war book wins top French award

Algerian Kamel Daoud wins the Prix Goncourt for his novel Houris, a searing account of his country’s 1990s conflict.

British Broadcasting CorporationWatchHomeNewsUS ElectionSportBusinessInnovationCultureArtsTravelEarthVideoLiveHomeNewsIsrael-Gaza WarWar in UkraineUS & CanadaUKUK PoliticsEnglandN. IrelandN. Ireland PoliticsScotlandScotland PoliticsWalesWales PoliticsAfricaAsiaChinaIndiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastIn PicturesBBC InDepthBBC VerifyUS ElectionFull resultsKamala HarrisDonald TrumpJD VanceTim WalzSportBusinessExecutive LoungeTechnology of BusinessWomen at the HelmFuture of BusinessInnovationTechnologyScience & HealthArtificial IntelligenceAI v the MindCultureFilm & TVMusicArt & DesignStyleBooksEntertainment NewsArtsArts in MotionTravelDestinationsAfricaAntarcticaAsiaAustralia and PacificCaribbean & BermudaCentral AmericaEuropeMiddle EastNorth AmericaSouth AmericaWorld’s TableCulture & ExperiencesAdventuresThe SpeciaListEarthNatural WondersWeather & ScienceClimate SolutionsSustainable BusinessGreen LivingVideoLiveLive NewsLive SportHomeNewsUS ElectionSportBusinessInnovationCultureArtsTravelEarthVideoLiveAudioWeatherNewslettersAlgeria silent after civil war book wins top French awardGetty ImagesFor the first time, an Algerian author has won France’s top literary award, the Goncourt, with a searing account of his country’s 1990s civil war.

Kamel Daoud’s novel Houris tells of Algeria’s blood-soaked “dark decade”, in which up to 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in massacres blamed on Islamists or the army.

The heroine Fajr (Dawn in Arabic) has survived having her throat cut by Islamist fighters - she has a smile-like scar on her neck and needs a speaking tube to communicate - and tells her story to the baby girl she carries inside her.

Written in French, the book “gives voice to the suffering of a dark period in Algeria, particularly the suffering of women,” the Goncourt committee said.

“It shows how literature… can trace another path for memory, next to the historical account.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp81d8n9nz7o

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