Amara Lakhous was born in Algiers in 1970. He has a degree in philosophy from the University of Algiers and another in cultural anthropology from the University la Sapienza, Rome. He recently completed a Ph.D. thesis entitled “Living Islam as a Minority.” His first novel, Le cimici e il pirata (Bedbugs and the Pirate), was published in 1999. Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, winner of Italy’s prestigious Flaiano prize, is his second novel. He currently resides in New York.
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Amara Lakhous, author of Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio (forthcoming from Europa Editions, fall 2008) interviewed on France 24. The novel, the art scene in and around Rome's...
Amara Lakhous's Clash of Civlizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio (forthcoming from Europa Editions, fall 2008) received a mention in the Letters to the Editor section of last Sunday's New York...
Into the 'new Italy'
A novelist confronts the country's modern clash of cultures.
from the Philadelphia Inquirer
In decades past, a kind of honorary chair existed in American publishing for a "great"...
Inveterate traveler, cultural ambassador, doctor of sociology, and bestselling author Amara Lakhous appears to be on a three-week tour of America sponsored by the US state department through its International...
Latest reviews
- A Murder Mystery About Much More Than Whodunit By Etinosa Agbonlahor | Friday, November 14, 2014 The first thing I ever read by Amara Lakhous was a novel called Dispute over a Very Italian Piglet. Intrigued by the title (which ought to win an award for utter wit), I...— Nov 14 2014
- A wryly charming mystery, set in Turin, Italy, whose central question is, How did the pig end up in the mosque?— Jun 23 2014
- The second bilingual work of the Algerian-born Italian writer Amara Lakhous, Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio was first written in Arabic and then rewritten by its author in the Italian language. In ways resonant of Gadda’s Awful Mess, Lakhous’s...— Jun 9 2014
- Editors’ Picks: Summer Reads Dispute over a Very Italian Piglet Amara Lakhous. Ann Goldstein, tr. This new release by Amara Lakhous is a multi-ethnic mystery set in Turin, Italy. Against a backdrop of feuds between Albanians and Romanians in this northern Italian...— May 27 2014
- Finding the right book for the right occasion can be difficult at times, but sometimes it just happens. Recently, I had to spend a day at the local shopping centre while my car was being given a once-over, so I needed something short that I'd be able to read while 90s...— May 6 2014
- With a journalist protagonist, this Turin-based mystery lightheartedly probes the challenges and joys of life a newly multicultural society.— May 1 2014
- It sounds like the beginning of a joke: A pig walks into a mosque. But in Amara Lakhous’s second novel, set in Turin, in northern Italy, this incident touches off a minor war between a local group of Muslims and a Nigerian man, Joseph, who adores his pet pig, Gino, and claims...— Apr 23 2014
- Murder is the obvious problem, but finding out who did it leads to smaller issues with bigger implications--the loves and hates which immigrants from diverse backgrounds have for each other and their adopted city, Rome. Who killed Lorenzo Manfredini...— Apr 21 2014
- Barnes and Noble Reviews: The Long List Dispute Over a Very Italian Piglet Amara Lakhous delivers a mystery novel with its finger on the hot-button issues of today's Europe. Immigration and multicultural...— Apr 16 2014
- Political Satire, Mystery Novel Chosen for Reading Project Political Satire, Mystery Novel Chosen for Reading Project By ZOE FERGUSON Both prospective and current students...— Apr 14 2014
- Muslim immigration and European xenophobia are serious issues, but that doesn’t mean that one need write about them in an awed, timorous manner. If you disagree, consider perusing Amara Lakhous’s second novel. Perhaps the only consistent feature of Divorce Islamic Style,...— May 21 2012
- Amara Lakhous, the author of Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, has written another Roman comedy, Divorce Islamic Style, with a similar cast of immigrant characters in a neighborhood of "the Italy of the future," crowded with illegal Africans...— May 11 2012
- "The real problem is that we live in a society where the male is both the opponent and, at the same time, the referee." So observes Safia, a smart and funny young Egyptian woman living in Rome with her devout Muslim husband. He insists she wear the veil, which at first chafes...— May 11 2012
- In the 1974 Italian comedy “Bread and Chocolate,” Nino Manfredi played an Italian guest worker in Switzerland who’s stripped of his papers after he’s caught urinating in public. That movie was a funny and sad depiction of Italian immigrants only one...— May 11 2012
- If the Strait of Sicily is something of a Styx—on one side a new throng constantly collecting for departure—then its Charon is a flotilla of rusty fishing boats tagged in Arabic script. In the past year, upwards to 54,000 migrants fled North Africa by sea to pitch tents...— May 11 2012
- from RonSlate.com In his only essay, Guy de Maupassant stated that the role of the realistic novelist “is not to tell a story, to amuse us or to appeal to our feelings, but to compel us to reflect, and to understand the darker and deeper meaning of events.”...— Apr 24 2012
- Lakhous (Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio) deftly satirizes political, cultural, and religious corruption in this clever comedy of errors. Sicilian narrator Christian Mazzari, code name Issa “the Tunisian,” is an excitable “Arabist” student...— Apr 10 2012
- “I have to constantly remind myself that I’m Tunisian, and this neighborhood is full of Egyptians. Many people don’t know that there are rivalries among the Arabs. For example, it’s not smooth sailing between Syrians and Lebanese, between Iraqis and Kuwaitis, between...— Apr 5 2012
- A couple of months ago, I mentioned that after reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog I wanted to read more translated fiction. Since then Claire and I have received several lovely books from small publishers of translated work. Today is the first in a new weekly series, Translated...— Jul 6 2009
- Algerian writer Amara Lakhous rarely mentions his homeland in “Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio,” a candidly naive novel exploring the love-hate relations between Italy and its immigrants, both external and internal. A quote, however, from Tahar...— Apr 3 2009
