Gallimard editions banned at the Algiers International Book Fair

This is a first. Algerian sources close to the organization of the 27th Algiers International Book Fair (Sila) told Figaro that the French publishing house Gallimard will not be able to attend this event scheduled for November 6 to 16, 2024. Its presence has been banned by the authorities.

The information is confirmed by Antoine Gallimard: “We have just received a letter which provides no explanation as to the reasons or reasons justifying this decision”he told the publishing world site Actualitté.

According to “what is being whispered in the circles of the book chain in Algiers”the organizers would like to avoid having to justify the presence on the fair stands of Kamel Daoud’s latest novel, Houris published in August.

In this novel, a pregnant survivor of a massacre during the Islamist uprising of the 1990s holds a long monologue with the little girl she is expecting, telling her the terrible story of these years of bloodshed and the silence imposed by the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation of 2015.

According to article 46 of this text, is punishable by imprisonment of three to five years and an equivalent fine of 1700 to 3500 euros, “anyone who, through his declarations, writings or any other act, uses or exploits the wounds of the national tragedy, to undermine the institutions of the democratic and popular Algerian Republic, weaken the State, harm the honorability of its agents who have served it worthily, or tarnish the image of Algeria on the international level..

“Avoid anything French”

“In fact, several novelists and essayists have already dealt with the black decade in Algeria. It is not so much the subject of the book as Kamel Daoud’s criticisms of the treatment of this period by the political authorities and its highlighting by the French media which embarrass Algiers.assures an Algerian source in the publishing industry.

Behind the scenes of Sila, another interlocutor ensures that “this story goes beyond Kamel Daoud”. “The verbal instructions given by the Ministry of Culture are very clear: avoid everything French. This is the first time that Sila has taken such a political direction, transforming itself into a shooting gallery against publishers and book professionals under the pretext of a complicated bilateral relationship.”

Last year, another controversy marked the opening of the International Book Fair: the French writer Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize winner for literature in 2022, was unable to go to Algiers where she had been invited, having not obtained a visa. Only one explanation could have explained this decision: his participation in a column published in The World denouncing “the Algerian dungeon” and demanding the release of journalist Ihsane El Kadi. After the media coverage of the case, the authorities denied this by committing to issue her a visa, but the author ultimately refused to travel.