Boualem Sansal’s first novel to appear in English, The German Mujahid (Europa, 2009), won the RTL Reader’s Prize for Fiction in France and was the first work of fiction by an Arab writer to acknowledge the Holocaust in print. Sansal was born in a small village in the Ouarsenis, Algeria. His fiction and essays have been systematically censored in his native country due to their criticism of the government. He has been awarded the prestigious Prix du Roman Arabe in 2012 and the German Peace Prize in 2011. 2084: The End of the World, his seventh novel, won the French Academy’s Gran Prix for Fiction.
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The internationally acclaimed Algerian author presents his latest novel, The German Mujahid. In this groundbreaking story the author describes his country’s turbulent political issues in a daring...
A few weeks ago, Canada saw the English-language publication of Egyptian novelist Bahaa Taher's Sunset Oasis, which won the inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008. This year's winner...
In this astonishing--and in contemporary Arab literature, perhaps unprecedented--mingling of old and new totalitarianisms, this skillfully drawn analogy between Islamic fascism and Nazi fascism, The German...
Latest reviews
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"A powerful satire on an Islamist dictatorship."— The Spectator, Mar 25 2017![]()
“a moving and cautionary story"— The Times Literary Supplement, Mar 1 2017![]()
"It’s a powerful celebration of resistance, and I’ll put it down, in my humble opinion, as the must-read of my February must-read list."— Words Without Borders, Feb 27 2017![]()
"This tribute to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four by one of the Arab world’s most controversial novelists couldn’t be more timely.”— The Guardian, Feb 10 2017![]()
"Sansal lays out a fantastically detailed dystopia in complex and often elegant prose."— The National, Jan 25 2017![]()
— Jul 8 2015![]()
In this astonishing--and in contemporary Arab literature, perhaps unprecedented--mingling of old and new totalitarianisms, this skillfully drawn analogy between Islamic fascism and Nazi fascism, The German Mujahid is a genuinely brave book. It goes against the grain of the...— Feb 18 2010![]()
A few weeks ago, Canada saw the English-language publication of Egyptian novelist Bahaa Taher's Sunset Oasis, which won the inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008. This year's winner was Azazeel, by Egyptian scholar and novelist Youssef Ziedan. Both books deal...— Jan 2 2010![]()
It's not that I necessarily wanted or needed to read another Holocaust novel. But this book's declaration as "the first Arab novel to confront the Holocaust" certainly piqued my interest with the promise of a different perspective on an all-too-familiar topic. Originally titled...— Nov 12 2009![]()
It's common knowledge that, at the end of WWII, many German war criminals fled from justice via "ratlines" to South American countries. Less notorious, though, are the Nazis who, like the title character of Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal's excoriating new novel, The German...— Oct 16 2009![]()
A different perspective on the Holocaust is presented in this novel by Algerian author Sansal. Rachel and Malrich Schiller, two brothers from a remote village in Algeria who now live near Paris, learn that their parents have been brutally murdered by Islamic fundamentalists.— Oct 16 2009![]()
The German Mujahid, Europa Editions, 2009, by the Algerian writer Boualem Sansal is being marketed as the first Arab novel to confront the Holocaust. What it is above all, is a powerful literary inquiry into the hopelessness of a generation caught between civil war (Algeria in...— Oct 5 2009![]()
Two immigrant brothers discover the truth about their German father's past in this masterly investigation of evil, resistance and guilt, billed as “the first Arab novel to confront the Holocaust.” Narrator Malrich, the younger son of a German father and an Algerian mother,...— Aug 25 2009![]()
It's not easy making a phone call to Algeria. The connection is bad and you can be almost certain that the line is being tapped - if not by the government and the censors, then by Islamic fundamentalists. Boualem Sansal, one of Algeria's most famous writers, lives on the outskirts...— Jul 13 2009![]()
Le Monde des Livres By Christine Rousseau Boualem Sansal, from Sétif to Auschwitz In The German Mujahid, the Algerian novelist targets the silences in the official history of his country and the obliteration of the Holocaust. Nothing seems to stop...— Jul 13 2009![]()
Qantara interview with Fouzia Marouf Words against Evil: Boualem Sansal The Algerian writer, who became known in 1999 with his book Le Serment des Barbares, discusses his fifth latest and novel, The German Mujahid, in which he continues his fight against fanaticisms...— Jul 13 2009![]()
Lire: Delphine Peras Algeria: Twisting the Knife From the Second World War to North Africa: in his new novel, Boualem Sansal confronts two brothers born of a mixed marriage into history and horror and revitalizes his daring political commitment You really...— Jul 13 2009![]()
Le Point (France) By Valerie Marin la Meslee A Man Broken The Algerian writer Boualem Sansal confronts Nazism and Islamism with this deeply affecting story of two brothers. An impressive novel. Far from Bourmedès, in Algeria, from police controls and terrorists’...— Jul 13 2009
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