in the hunt for the Goncourt Kamel Daoud prize | EUROtoday
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“ Cher sir, it’s a riot! We have to stop. NOW ! “. Faced with the completely professional determination of the security officers, Osama Moslim complied. The 47-year-old Saudi author was quickly exfiltrated, in the middle of a security cordon, from the stand where he had been holding a signing sale for almost four hours, surrounded by a dense crowd. “I traveled 400 kilometers last night to buy his work and above all to see it in the flesh! », testifies Chakib, a young high school student, with tears in his eyes.
A whole part of the gigantic Exhibition Center, east of Algiers, which houses the Algiers International Book Fair (SILA)was, this Saturday, November 9, besieged by thousands of young fans. They had come to see their idol, a best-selling author of literature fantasy horrifying and fantastic. The price of his latest opuses (Fear III And Ten), 5,000 DA (35 euros at the official rate), or five times the price of a novel in Algeria on average, did not dissuade his thousands of admirers. “My 16-year-old daughter fought me for dragging me here and buying a book at this price! », chokes a mother dragging a teenager holding the book against her like a treasure, a trophy.
At the end of the day, the one we often compare to Rowlingby the universe and the success (millions of sales, translations, millions of followers on social networks…), posted a video on TikTok apologizing for the interruption of the signing session. “The situation was becoming dangerous for you,” he instructed his followers. Too many fainting, incidents, folks crushed by the gang… I apologize for that but it surely was to your security.”
At the Rabat Book Fair (Morocco), a few weeks ago, the organizers were also forced to interrupt the signing session of this author for the 32 novels, for fear of incidents. “I’m happy for him,” sighs an Algerian editor. A Saudi writing stories about mermaids and the Devil is special. And to think that Harry Potter books were banned from importing into Algeria for several months because it was about something haram (religiously illicit): witchcraft! “. Such success story editorial is a dream.
Civil servants on the lookout for “problematic titles”
An Algerian editor who testified on situation of anonymity is in no way on this frame of mind and might barely include his anger. “We can’t even manufacture our works in Algeria,” he protests in the course of his stand within the central pavilion of the Palais des Expositions. “I am reduced to printing… 50 copies per title! The authors are as desperate as we are. There has been no ink at the printers for months because the authorities have not yet decided who should import or not. Paper is super expensive and speculation around this raw material is terrible. »
He also complains about “surveillance, censorship”. “This week, the Ministry of Culture required us to present the works in their entirety to obtain the ISBN (code specific to each book), whereas before it was content with the title, a summary and the fourth of cover,” he continues. And to say the “tour” of ministry officers within the SILA stands to flush out “problematic titles”. “They have already sorted in advance, but they continue to monitor, asking to remove this or that work,” denounces one other Algerian writer.
ALSO READ Algeria: the tough lifetime of publishers and booksellersThere, officers requested to “hide” The Encyclopedia of Love in Islam by the late Malek Chebel due to the quilt design depicting an embracing couple. “We were told to hide it but that it was not banned from sale. So I wonder how to sell a work that has been put under the table? », we ask ourselves on the stand. Elsewhere, a Middle Eastern publisher is asked to hide all Moroccan novels. In another case, officials require a publisher to “set aside” two works, Who are these self-proclaimed tenors of Hirak Algerian? by Ahmed Bensaada, though a lot in demand by the official media, and… the novel by the Ivorian Tanella Boni, Niggas by no means go to heaven. “They just detected the words ‘hirak’ and ‘paradise’ on the covers and that alerted them! The rest, they didn’t even know what it was.”
Koukou publishing home banned from SILA
Several publishers additionally recall the ban on SILA from the Koukou publishing home, for the second consecutive version. The writer filed a grievance final yr in opposition to this resolution however the courts refused to open a judicial investigation. At the tip of June, the signing of a piece, Kabylia sharedby Dominique Martre, printed by Koukou, in a bookstore in Béjaïa was banned and all these current have been taken away by the police.
Another publishing home common on the Salon is absent (however we have no idea if that is an initiative of the writer or the organizers): Frantz Fanon editions. This publishing home has been in turmoil for the reason that ban, on the finish of October, of two signing classes by Hédia Bensahli, writer of Jewish Algeriaprefaced by the Franco-Israeli Valérie Zenatti. A marketing campaign in opposition to “normalization with Israel in the context of the war” was led in opposition to his two signing classes and the e-book was seized from all bookstores.
“As publishers, we are so weak, disunited, lacking in solidarity and subject to the authorities,” regrets one writer. My father instructed me ”promote potatoes, it is extra fascinating”. I cannot promote potatoes, I assume this suicide-commitment till the tip.”
ALSO READ “Houris” by Kamel Daoud: this Goncourt that Algeria doesn’t wish to hear aboutThe ban, verbal and never official, additionally impacts all of the works of Kamel Daoud, winner of the Goncourt for his novel Houris. Its writer Gallimard was forbidden presence at SILA. In the Grasset & Fasquelle stand sits a big poster of Gaël FayeRenaudot prize. At Actes sud, we are able to see one other poster of Miguel BonnefoyFemina Prize. The Goncourt winner is nowhere.
When we ask in stands if his books can be found, we’re first met with huge, bewildered eyes. ” No. And what’s more, ministry officials and organizers are always making rounds looking for his works. There is even a bookseller who forgot two copies of an old work by Daoud on his stalls, and he was scolded, says a book professional.
“They should have let Daoud’s novel in, because it is up to the Algerian reader to decide,” claims a publisher.
The Daoud case: reproaches and misunderstandings
“No, it is not about Hourisit’s his positions on Palestine, Islam and his nation Algeria that pose an issue for Algerians,” retorts one other editor. An writer, who requested anonymity, appears tormented: “I really appreciate Kamel and his writings, but what happened? Was he trapped or manipulated by Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Parisian media? “. “No journalist here has called him to find out in any case,” reacts a veteran of the career. Reproaches and misunderstandings accumulate and collide.
ALSO READ Is the novel telling fiction? Kamel Daoud’s response
To Discover
Kangaroo of the day
Answer
“The repeated restrictions on SILA have profound consequences for Algerian authors,” underlines Mohcene Belabbas, former president of the RCD (secular opposition social gathering). Seeing themselves restricted in their very own nation, many threat turning away from the native market to publish overseas. This development may result in a ‘flight of writers’, with an elevated threat of seeing Algerian writers produce and publish elsewhere.
The Minister of Culture and Arts, Soraya Mouloudji, defined through the opening of SILA that this area “wanted to be a real place of cultural influence at the national and international levels”. Under the theme “Read to triumph”, SILA presents greater than 300,000 titles and brings collectively 1,007 publishers from 40 nations, together with 290 Algerians.
https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/salon-international-du-livre-d-alger-2024-a-la-recherche-du-prix-goncourt-kamel-daoud-10-11-2024-2574928_24.php