Kamel Daoud

For the Algerian Olympic rower, see Kamel Ait Daoud.

Kamel Daoud (2015)

Kamel Daoud (Arabic: كمال داود; born June 17, 1970) is an Algerian writer and journalist.

Early life and education

Kamel Daoud was born in Mostaganem, Algeria, on June 17, 1970. The oldest of six children, he was raised in an Arabic-speaking Muslim family in Algeria.[1]

He studied French literature at the University of Oran.[1]

Career

Journalism

In 1994, Daoud began working for Le Quotidien d'Oran, a French-language Algerian newspaper. He published his first column three years later,[2] titled "Raina raikoum" ("Our opinion, your opinion").[3] He was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper for eight years.[4] In 2011 he was editor of the paper and still writing the column.[3]

As of 2015 he was a columnist in various media, an editorialist in the online newspaper Algérie-Focus and his articles are also published in Slate Afrique.[5]

In early 2016, Daoud announced that he would be giving up his newspaper work and concentrating on writing fiction.[6]

In 2018, his Le Quotidien d'Oran articles (2010-2016) were translated into English.[7]

Books

Daoud's debut novel, The Meursault Investigation (in French, Meursault, contre-enquête) (2013), won the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman (Goncourt Prize for a First Novel),[8] as well as the prix François Mauriac and the Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie. It was also shortlisted for the Prix Renaudot.[9] In April 2015, an excerpt from The Meursault Investigation was featured in the New Yorker magazine.[10]

His 2024 novel Houris, which was published in France but not Algeria, is set during the 1990s civil war in Algeria, also known as the "Black Decade", when the government fought armed Islamist groups. This period is regarded as a delicate subject and not taught in schools. There has been criticism of the government for passing laws that provided clemency to Islamist fighters who put down their weapons (1999) and then a broader reconciliation law in 2005, widening the amnesty. The war is seen through the eyes of a 26-year-old woman who had survived the Had Chekala massacre in January 1998, as a child.[11] In November 2024, the novel was awarded the Prix Goncourt.[12][11]

Views

Daoud has frequently criticised aspects of the Arab-Muslim world.[6]

On 13 December 2014, on On n'est pas couché on France 2 TV channel, Daoud said of his relationship to Islam: "If we do not decide in the so-called Arab world the question of God, we will not rehabilitate the man, we will not move forward. The religious question becomes vital in the Arab world. We must slice it, we must think about it in order to move forward".[13] Three days later, Abdelfattah Hamadache Zeraoui, a Salafist imam at the time working on Echorouk News, declared that Daoud should be put to death for his statements (that is, a fatwa[1]), saying "He questioned the Qur'an as well as the sacred Islam... We call on the Algerian regime to condemn him to death publicly."[13] Zeraoui later reiterated his threats on Ennahar TV.[14] Daoud filed a complaint in Algerian court and the judiciary delivered a judgment on March 8, 2016 that Daoud's attorney called "unprecedented": Zeraoui was sentenced to three to six months in prison and a 50,000-dinar fine.[15] However, the judgment was set aside in June 2016 by the Oran Court of Appeal on the basis of a jurisdiction challenge.[16]

The November 20, 2015, issue of the New York Times featured an op-ed by Daoud titled "Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It" in both English and French, that was highly critical of Saudi Arabia.[17] The February 14, 2016, issue of the New York Times featured a controversial[6] second op-ed piece by Daoud, "The Sexual Misery of the Arab World" in English, French, and Arabic.[18] Both of these articles were republished in his 2017 collection of essays Mes Indépendances.[19]

Awards and honours

Personal life

Daoud married, but divorced in 2008 after the birth of a daughter, as his wife had become increasingly religious. He is a father of two children, and dedicated his novel The Meursault Investigation to them.[20]

He moved to France in 2023, saying that he did not have enough freedom to write "or breathe" in Algeria.[11]

Bibliography

Novels

  • La Fable du nain (Dar El Gharb, 2003)
  • Ô Pharaon (Dar El Gharb, 2005)
  • Meursault, contre-enquête (Éditions Barzakh, 2013). The Meursault Investigation, trans. John Cullen (Other Press, 2015)
  • Zabor ou Les psaumes (2017). Zabor, or The Psalms, trans. Emma Ramadan (Other Press, 2021).
  • Houris (2024)

Novellas and short stories

  • La Préface du négre : nouvelles (Éditions Barzakh, 2008)
    • Includes: L’Ami d’Athènes; Gibrîl au Kérosène; La Préface du nègre; L’Arabe et le vaste pays de Ô[21]
  • Le Minotaure 504 : nouvelles (Sabine Wespieser, 2011)[a]
    • Includes: Le Minotaure 504; Gibrîl au Kérosène; L’Ami d’Athènes; La Préface du nègre
  • La Préface du nègre, Le Minotaure 504 et autres nouvelles (Actes Sud, 2015)
    • Includes: L’Ami d’Athènes; Le Minotaure 504; Gibrîl au Kérosène; La Préface du nègre; L’Arabe et le vaste pays de Ô
Stories[b]
  • "Musa" (2015), an excerpt from The Meursault Investigation.[22]

Non-fiction

  • Mes indépendences – Chroniques 2010-2016 (Éditions Barzakh and Actes Sud, 2017).[c] Chroniques: Selected Columns, 2010-2016, trans. Elisabeth Zerofsky (Other Press, 2018).
  • Le Peintre dévorant la femme (Stock, 2018).[d]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Daoud, Kamel (2011). Le Minotaure 504 : nouvelles. Paris: Sabine Wespieser. ISBN 978-2-84805-098-0. OCLC 731328412.
  2. ^ Short stories unless otherwise noted.
  3. ^ Daoud, Kamel (2017). Mes indépendances : chroniques 2010-2016. Semiane, Sid Ahmed. Arles: Actes Sud. ISBN 978-2-330-07282-7. OCLC 976436139.
  4. ^ Daoud, Kamel (2018). Le peintre dévorant la femme. Paris: Stock. ISBN 978-2-234-08373-8. OCLC 1062401335.

References

  1. ^ a b c Steven R. Serafin (March 11, 2016). "Kamel Daoud | Algerian writer". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  2. ^ Le Touzet, Jean-Louis. "Kamel Daoud. Bouteflikafka". Archived from the original on August 15, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Daoud, Kamel. Translated into English by Suzanne Ruta. "Kamel Daoud: Meursault" (Archive). Guernica. March 28, 2011. Retrieved on December 7, 2015.
  4. ^ "Le prix littéraire "Mohamed Dib" décerné au journaliste-écrivain Kamel Daoud". Le Midi Libre. May 11, 2008. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  5. ^ "Kamel Daoud". Leaders Afrique (in French). June 18, 2015. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  6. ^ a b c Schofield, Hugh (March 7, 2016). "Algerian novelist Kamel Daoud sparks Islamophobia row". BBC News. Archived from the original on November 22, 2025. Retrieved February 18, 2026.
  7. ^ Kamel Daoud: Chroniques: Selected Columns: 2010-2016: New York: Other Press: 2018: ISBN 9781590519578
  8. ^ "Le Goncourt du premier roman 2015". Academie Goncourt. May 5, 2015. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
  9. ^ "Kamel Daoud: Meursault, contre-enquête [Meursault, Counter Investigation". The Modern Novel Blog. October 29, 2014. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
  10. ^ Daoud, Kamel. Translated into English by John Cullen. "Musa" (Archive). New Yorker. April 6, 2015. Retrieved on December 7, 2015.
  11. ^ a b c d Schwartz, Madeleine (February 17, 2026). "'I felt betrayed, naked': did a prize-winning novelist steal a woman's life story?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 17, 2026. Retrieved February 18, 2026.
  12. ^ France’s top literary prize the Prix Goncourt awarded to Kamel Daoud for ‘Houris’, euronews.com. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  13. ^ a b Cocquet, Marion (December 17, 2014). "Kamel Daoud sous le coup d'une fatwa". Le Point (in French). Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  14. ^ Aït-Hatrit, Saïd (January 15, 2015). "En Algérie, les islamistes radicaux à l'air libre". Le Monde (in French). ISSN 1950-6244. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  15. ^ "Algérie: Kamel Daoud fait condamner un imam". Libération (in French). Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  16. ^ "Affaire Kamel Daoud-Hamadache: Le tribunal d'Oran se déclare incompétent". Algeria-Watch (in French). Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  17. ^ Daoud, Kamel. Translator: John Cullen. "Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It" (Archive). The New York Times. November 20, 2015. Original French: "L'Arabie saoudite, un Daesh qui a réussi" (Archive).
  18. ^ Daoud, Kamel. "The Sexual Misery of the Arab World" (Archive). The New York Times. February 12, 2016. Print headline: "Sexual Misery and Islam." February 14, 2016. p. SR7, National Edition. Original French version: "La misère sexuelle du monde arabe" (Archive). Arabic version: "البؤس الجنسيّ في العالم العربيّ" (Archive).
  19. ^ Daoud, Kamel (2017). Mes indépendances : chroniques 2010-2016. Semiane, Sid Ahmed. Arles: Actes Sud. ISBN 978-2-330-07282-7. OCLC 976436139.
  20. ^ "Stranger Still". The New York Times. April 5, 2015.
  21. ^ Bahi, Yamina (2021). "La préface du nègre de Kamel Daoud : une écriture de rupture et d'engagement". Les ouvrages du CRASC.
  22. ^ Daoud, Kamel (April 6, 2015). "Musa". The New Yorker. 91 (7). Translated from the French by John Cullen: 66–73.
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