Algerian-French writer Kamel Daoud on Monday won France’s top literary prize, the Goncourt, for a novel centred on Algeria’s civil war between the government and Islamists in the 1990s.
He emerged at the window of the French Drouant restaurant where the Goncourt jury’s gathered to deliberate.
The panel picked Daoud’s novel “Houris” which competed against 3 other books.
The book centers around the character of Aube who survives Algeria’s civil war known as the “Black decade”.
The book by the former journalist will however not be published in his home country because of a law which notably criminalizes public discussion about the conflict.
French-Rwandan author Gaël Faye won the Prix Renaudot, another coveted prize, on Monday. He was among the 4 shortlister for the Goncourt prize.
The 42-year-old author and slam poet was honored for his second novel, Jacaranda.
