Skip to main content

New DZ Fiction - Fall 2019

It's Algiers' International Bookfair season at the moment in Algeria, the famed SILA which takes place yearly at the end of October-beginning of November. This means it's 'the' time of year for new book releases.

For Algerian publishing houses, October is very much a 'Super Thursday' equivalent. The autumn is the season when new titles get released to coincide with the boost the Bookfair gives to books.

As a result, titles for fiction abound in that period, in Arabic, French, and Tamazight, bringing both new and known authors' voices to the fore. 

I have always found it impossible to keep a full record of the titles released by Algerian authors at that time of year, there are so many (thankfully). Nonetheless, here is a list of the new titles I have come across, released in 2019, most of them since September.


Al Mutawassit editions:


Amara Lakhous - طير الليل


























Samir Kacimi - سلالم  ترولار


























Salah Badis -  هذه أمورٌ تحدث
(short stories)

























Khaled Ben Saleh (poetry) -
 يومياتُ رجلٍ إفريقيّ
يرتدي قميصًا مُزهّرًا
ويُدخِّن L&M في زمن الثورة



Alaraby Ramdani - أناشيد الملح - سيرة حراڨ 




MIM editions:


Boualem Batatache -  مملكة الموز






















Dar Elayn Elnashr

Ismail Yabrir -  منبوذو العصافير



























Manshourat El-Ikhtilef


Bashir Mufti - وحيدا في الليل





 

Rabia Djelti - قلبُ الملاك الآلي






Ahmed Taybawi - إختفاء السيد لا أحد




Amin Zaoui - الباشْ كاتب


























Abdelqader Hamida - الحكاية الحزينة لماريا ماجدالينا









Said Boutajin - نقطة، الى الجحيم  (short stories)

 











Frantz Fanon editions:


Ahmed Gasmia - Les peuples du ciel




















Hakim Lâalam - L'homme-carrefour et autres histoires d'un pays impossible (short stories)





























Casbah editions:


Lynda Chouiten - Une valse










Murad Zimu - Kawiṭu





Chihab editions:

Mustapha Bouchareb - Mère des Cités

























 Mohamed Sari - الغيث


























Tafat editions:

Lahdir Sidali - Tamurt yeččan arraw-is (novel: the country who eats its children)













Khyal editions


Walid Sahli - Tanagit 







Apic editions:

 Hanane Bourai - Alger Ego

























 Djawad Rostom Touati - La civilisation de l'ersatz


























Akram El Kebir - Les fleuves impassibles



























Barzakh editions:

Rabia Djelti - Les ailes de Daouya (translation of حنين بالنعناع released in 2016 by Manshourat El-Ikhtilef)






















Lazhair Labter - M'quidech (a reprint of a 50 year old comix)


Dalimen editions:

Rabia Djelti - Le Fou de Marilyn (a translation of the original Arabic عازب حي المرجان , translator Amina Mekahli)





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Books on the 'Hirak' - fiction, poetry, and non-fiction

 (photo credit: Yacine Bouaziz ) Every Friday, for the past 38 weeks*, men and women with their children have been peacefully demonstrating in Algeria, reclaiming public space and demanding a complete overhaul of the political landscape. In the country, these demonstrations are described as part of a larger whole: the " hirak " (less often harak ), 'the movement'.  It was of course only a matter of time before the hirak became the main subject in books. So far, non-fiction leads with analyses and commentaries of this nationwide movement, written in Arabic and French, by single authors or collectives, published as early on as May 2019 (demonstrations began on 16 February 2019). The hirak has also crossed into poetry and fiction. Khaled Ben Salah's poetry collection " diary of an African man who wears a floral shirt and smokes L&M's in the time of the revolution " was published by El Mutawassit editions in October (see an excerpt...

Moufdi Zakaria - The Algerian Ilyad

I am over the moon to have found a PDF version of the original Algerian Ilyad by the great Algerian war poet Moufdi Zakaria. As it is the original version, it is in Arabic HERE (thanks to archive.org, a fantastic e-resource for old books, you should check it out).  You can access the book in other formats too HERE . The Algerian Iliad - إلياذة الجزائـر  -  l' Iliade algé rienne  is a 1,000 line poem retracing Algeria's history in great historical details.  Throughout, Cheikh Zakaria recounts all the names that have shapped the Algeria's history. He goes through all the regions' history and their greatest most emblematic figures. This poem is so valuable and beautiful.  It should be on the curriculum of any Arabic and history cursus in Algeria.  Perhaps it is and/or you know this poem? Who is Cheikh Moufdi Zakaria? Well, on 5th of July, three days from now, Algeria will celebrate 50 years of independence. A tremendous poem wa...

"Kan darbe yaadatani, isa gara fuula dura itti yaaddu" (Oromo proverb)

"By remembering the past, the future is remembered". These notes are taken from Mengesha Rikitu's research on "Oromo Folk Tales for a new generation" by (see also his "Oromo Proverbs" and "Oromo Grammar"). Some proverbs are folk tales are worth the detour: 1) Oromo Proverb – Harreen yeroo alaaktu malee, yeroo dhuudhuuftu hin'beektu   "The Donkey doesn't know that it is farting again and again when it is braying." (ie some people concentrating on their own verbosity are unaware of what is going on behind them) You can tell that dhuudhuuftu is the farting can't you, am betting on the sound that word makes. Oromifa is one of the five most widely spoken (Afroasiatic) languages in Africa. Its importance lies in the numbers of its speakers and in its geographical extent. The 'official' numbers point to 30 million Oromo speakers (but there has not been to this day a complete or reliable census). The majority...