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A short surrealist novel - The garden by the house by Abdelfateh Shahada

My review in French in El Watan newspaper :


The garden by the house (الجنة قريبة من البيت)
Abdelfetah Shehada
MIM editions, 2015


La littérature algérienne a toujours porté des voix d’auteurs qui aiment faire tomber les frontières entre rêve et réalité, entre conte et voix d’oracle. Cet espace transitoire est exploré dans un petit roman d’Abdelfetah Shehada, Le jardin près de la maison*, récemment publié aux éditions MIM.


Dans cette fiction, la dimension que Shehada dessine en effaçant peu à peu la séparation entre un réel palpable et l’hallucination se situe au sein d’un espace antédiluvien et familier : les jardins qui nous entourent. L’histoire s’ouvre dans un jardin public, celui dans lequel Hussein se promène depuis l’enfance, et avec lequel il garde un lien tout particulier. Il y rencontre un vieil homme errant, qui lui demande de le mener vers «le chemin». L’ancien cherche un chemin singulier, «celui de la mémoire». Hussein, intrigué par cette demande, continue tout de même sa route pour préparer sa journée.

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