Algerian Civil War novel earns Kamal Daoud France’s top literary prize

The Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize, went this year to French-Algerian writer, Kamal Daoud, for his novel “Houris,” set during Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s.

The novel has stirred the anger of the military regime in Algiers, whose leaders have had a role in the civil war that opposed the government to Islamists, leaving at least 200,000 people dead.

“It’s your dream, paid for by your years of life. To my deceased father. To my mother, still alive, but who doesn’t remember a thing. No words exist to say a true thank you,” wrote Daoud on X, in a message accompanied by a photo of his parents.

With this novel, Daoud appeared in the Goncourt final four for the second time, 11 years after Meursault contre-enquête (The Meursault Investigation), which ultimately won the Goncourt for best first novel.

Houris is banned in Algeria, where the regime has used its mouthpieces in a smear campaign against the writer.