France’s top literary prize the Prix Goncourt awarded to Kamel Daoud for ‘Houris’

France's most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, has been awarded to Franco-Algerian author Kamel Daoud for his novel “Houris” - a fictional account of the massacres during Algeria's ‘black decade’ (1992-2002). 

The novel is written from the point of view of a survivor of a massacre perpetrated by Islamists on 31 December 1999.

The book is banned in Algeria, as the country prohibits any work evoking this period of civil war. Indeed, “Houris” contravenes an article of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, which prohibits the evocation of the ‘wounds of the national tragedy’ - the expression used to describe the civil war that pitted Islamist groups against the Algerian army from 1992 to 2002, killing between 60,000 and 200,000 people and leaving thousands more missing. 

Its publisher, Gallimard, was asked not to attend the 27th edition of Algiers International Book Fair, which runs from 6 to 16 November. 

Daoud, 54, previously won the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman (Goncourt Prize for a Debut Novel) for his book "The Meursault Investigation" ("Meursault, contre-enquête" - 2013).

He becomes the first author of Algerian descent to win the Goncourt Prize.

He was chosen over fellow finalists Hélène Gaudy (with her novel “Archipels”), Sandrine Collette (“Madelaine avant l'aube”) and Gaël Faye (“Jacaranda”) - with the latter winning the Renaudot Prize for his second novel, about the reconstruction of Rwanda after the 1994 genocide.  

Born in Mostaganem, Algeria, Daoud studied French literature at the University of Oran and started working as a journalist when he entered French-language Algerian newspaper Le Quotidien d’Oran in 1994. His popular column, “Raïna Raïkoum" (“Our Opinion, Your Opinion”) made him a household name, and led him to become a columnist in various other media, including Le Point.

He moved to France in 2023, three years after becoming a French citizen. 

The Goncourt Prize is given by the Académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only €10, but results in considerable recognition and book sales for the winning author.