Showing results by author "Kamel Daoud" in All Categories

He was the brother of "the Arab" killed by the infamous Meursault, the antihero of Camus' classic novel. Seventy years after that event, Harun, who has lived since childhood in the shadow of his sibling's memory, refuses to let him remain anonymous: He gives his brother a story and a name - Musa - and describes the events that led to Musa's casual murder on a dazzlingly sunny beach.

"Je suis la véritable trace, le plus solide des indices attestant de tout ce que nous avons vécu en dix ans en Algérie. Je cache l’histoire d’une guerre entière, inscrite sur ma peau depuis que je suis enfant." Aube est une jeune Algérienne qui doit se souvenir de la guerre d’indépendance, qu’elle n’a pas vécue, et oublier la guerre civile des années 1990, qu’elle a elle-même traversée. Sa tragédie est marquée sur son corps : une cicatrice au cou et des cordes vocales détruites. Muette, elle rêve de retrouver sa voix.

Kamel Daoud discusses his award-winning debut novel The Meursault Investigation, a thrilling reimagining of Albert Camus' 1942 classic, The Stranger. Told from the perspective of the brother of the Arab killed by Camus' antihero, Meursault, Daoud's novel offers a profound meditation on Arab identity and a gripping critique of postcolonial Algeria. In conversation with Adam Shatz ( London Review of Books) and translator Isabelle Dupuis. With a reading by Chris Lujan.