Goncourt Prize Awarded to Kamel Daoud
In November 2024, the Académie Goncourt awarded its literary prize to Kamel Daoud for his novel Houris. The Goncourt Prize is a significant award in French literature, providing substantial financial and prestige benefits to its winners.
Daoud’s victory occurred during a period of tension between France and Algeria, marked by Algerian political repression and French involvement in the Western Sahara dispute.
Background of Kamel Daoud and His Novel
Daoud, a celebrated Algerian writer, moved to France in 2023 due to an inability to “write nor breathe” in Algeria. His French publisher, Gallimard, was reportedly excluded from the 2024 Algiers book fair, potentially linked to the publication of Houris.
Houris explores the Algerian civil war, also known as the “black decade,” a conflict in the 1990s estimated to have resulted in up to 200,000 deaths. Public discussion of this period remains sensitive in Algeria, constrained by a 2005 reconciliation law that granted amnesty to former Islamist fighters and broadly restricts discussing the “national tragedy” in ways that could undermine state institutions. Daoud has described the civil war as a “taboo subject.”
The novel tells the story through Fajr (Aube), a 26-year-old woman who, as a child, survived a massacre and sustained a severe neck injury. Her experiences symbolize a history many wish to forget. The Goncourt judges recognized Daoud for addressing the suffering linked to this period, particularly that of women.
Saâda Arbane's Allegations and Lawsuits
Eleven days after the Goncourt ceremony, Saâda Arbane publicly claimed that Daoud had appropriated her personal details for Houris. Arbane, a 30-year-old survivor of a 2000 terrorist attack in which her parents and siblings were killed and she sustained a throat injury, stated she had confided her story to her psychiatrist, who is Kamel Daoud's wife.
Arbane initiated lawsuits against Daoud in both Algeria and France. The Algerian case focuses on alleged theft of medical records, while the French case cites invasion of privacy and libel against Daoud and his publisher. Daoud has denied these claims, asserting his work is fictional and suggesting the cases are part of a wider campaign by the Algerian government to silence critics of its regime.
Detailed Similarities Between Arbane and the Novel's Character
Arbane’s lawyers have identified approximately 30 similarities between her life and the novel’s protagonist, Aube:
- Both are rare survivors of a terrorist attack with slit throats.
- Both lost the ability to speak clearly and could only whisper.
- Both underwent tracheostomies and wore cannulas.
- Arbane's biological parents were shepherds; Aube's parents raised sheep.
- Both were compared to