Algerian author Kamel Daoud's first novel, Meursault, Contre-enquête, first published in Algerian in 2013, and translated into English in 2015 by Other Press, turns Albert Camu's classic work, The Stranger, on its head. Told from the point of view of the brother of the nameless Arab who was killed by Meursault on the beach, this book is based on the premise that the murder committed by Meursault in 1942 was a true crime. Daoud gives the Arab a name - Musa - and, along with it, a family, a home and a story.
“Not only does Daoud use an indigenous voice to retell the story of The Stranger, he offers a different account of the murder and makes Algeria more than just a setting for existential questions posed by a French novelist. For Daoud, Algeria is the existential question." (New York Times Review of Books, June 8, 2015)
Discussion in French, with simultaneous translation into English.
Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 6:00 to 7:30pm
Maison Francaise, East Gallery, Buell Hall
