Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Algerian Kamel Daoud winner of the Goncourt first novel – The Point

Algerian writer Kamel Daoud, whom a fatwa in Algeria, received the Goncourt first novel Meursault, against investigation (Actes Sud), announced Tuesday the literary jury also Patrice Franceschi rewarded for the new and the Belgian William Cliff for poetry. Meditation on contemporary Algerian identity, Kamel Daoud’s book is written in mirror of the famous novel by Albert Camus The Stranger (1942) and was finalist Goncourt last fall. He also received the Award of the five continents of the Francophonie and the François Mauriac price.

“I’m not the man of one book contrary to popular belief because I think that leads to two diseases is vanity, a religious war,” said Kamel Daoud in Paris on Tuesday when receiving the prize. The novelist, 44, whom a fatwa Islamist in Algeria, had publicly expressed last autumn disappointment of not having received the Goncourt.

“Stakhanovite writing”

Kamel Daoud is one of the most read political columnists Algeria, came to journalism to escape poverty and which has recently developed novel. Daoud is a “Stakhanovite of writing,” says the editor of the Daily Oran , a French newspaper. “He reckoned I was writing up to 300 000 characters per month!” fun Kamel Daoud, who also signs in other publications.

In his novel, published in 2013 in Algeria, the Barzakh editions, and in 2014 by Actes Sud in France, Kamel Daoud gave the floor the brother of the “Arab” anonymous Meursault killed by The Stranger Albert Camus Nobel Prize. Meditation on contemporary Algerian identity, this brilliant book was a finalist Goncourt in 2014, he also won the Prize of Five Continents de la Francophonie and the price François Mauriac.

These 200 pages have him Open the world. “I wanted to, I dreamed of a sequel to The Stranger to talk about my condition through a character. Not to settle a score,” said the author of 44 years , shaved head and deep brown eyes. “All expect we talking about Camus Meursault or to make the trial or to make a lawyer.” “I also dream of being judged, by mine, because somehow, I feel much closer to Meursault that of his victim,” he said.

The son of a policeman, Kamel Daoud was born in Mostaganem in June 1970 in a family of six children. Raised by his grandparents, he attended French literary studies after a math tray. His father, severe and introverted man, has made more than once in his arms when Kamel won the tray. Divorced father of two children, lives in Oran Kamel Daoud and would not leave for anything this city, nicknamed “the radiant”.



The French, the language of freedom

It keeps the last fifteen years the most read daily news from Algeria. Vitriolic articles published daily (except Friday) Le Quotidien d’Oran . He also writes his books in French, which remains for him the language of freedom. “The Arabic language is trapped by the sacred, by the dominant ideologies” he confided to Le Figaro . His articles are regularly in the French press.

scathing review of a regime that never ends, he has two neologisms coined from the name of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, “bouteflikiens” or ” bouteflikistes “. For him, there is official censorship, but also the anonymous letters Islamists who accuse him of being an apostate punishable by death under Islam. A Salafist activist called in December on social networks the Algerian authorities to sentence him to death and executed. An initiative construed as a fatwa in political circles and Algerian intellectuals even if its author has neither the legitimacy nor the required authority. Kamel Daoud filed a complaint against the activist end of 2014.

In January after the attack against Charlie Hebdo in Paris, the author declared “collapsed, broken, broken” France Culture, the attacks reminded him “the terrible years of the civil war in Algeria.” “I fear we lose face these people, I’m afraid they eventually win,” he said, denouncing the perpetrators of the attack, “they get to cut the world two, to provoke. “Wars

In Algeria, Meursault, against survey has been out of stock and had to be reprinted. To the satisfaction probably Algerian publisher Barzakh. “Barzakh, that means the isthmus in Arabic, and is what separates come together at the same time,” said Kamel Daoud. Kamel Daoud is also the author of several stories some of which were gathered in the collection The Minotaur 504 (Sabine Wespieser) Goncourt finalist of the new 2011.

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