Translated by David Kelley and Marjolijn de Jager
In Algerian White, Assia Djebar weaves an epic tapestry out of her intimate connection to a group of Algerian writers and intellectuals whose lives were cut short since since the 1956 struggle for independence. They include Mahfoud Boucebi, a psychiatrist; M’Hamed Boukhobza, a sociologist; and Abdelkader Alloula, a dramatist—the beloved friends to whom she dedicates the book—as well as Albert Camus. She records the horrors of her country’s civil wars and untangles the complex political and social issues that led to the long trail of the blood. This unique book grows from conversations remembered and imagined, meditations on her fallen literary peers and predecessors. Yet for Djebar, they cannot be silenced. They continue to tell stories, smile, and endure through her defiant pen. This cultural and political history of Algeria’s cross-cultural reality and its fight against colonization is infused with the oral tradition of Djebar’s Berber roots.
You heard that right—77% off all e-books from Seven Stories.
For the next week, until May 15 at 5:00PM EST, we’ll be selling all e-books on our website at 77% off their list price. It's a great chance to load up your e-book reader with the best fiction, political titles, and everything in between from Seven Stories Press.
Once you buy an e-book, you can download it as either an .epub file (for every device except Kindle) or as a .mobi file (for Kindle). Both files will remain available on your Library page for subsequent downloads. Details to be found here.
Check out some of our collections, including Fiction from around the World, Radical Women, Activist Diaries, and our For Young People if you're looking for inspiration!
A beloved author, translator, and filmmaker, ASSIA DJEBAR (1936–2015) was born Fatima-Zohra Imalayen in the Algerian town of Cherchell. Her novels and poems boldly faced the challenges and struggles she knew as a feminist living under patriarchy, and as an intellectual living under colonialism and its aftermath. Djebar’s writing, marked by a regal unwillingness to compromise in the face of ethical, linguistic, and narrative complexities, attracted devoted followers around the world, and received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Venice International Critics’ Prize, the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the Yourcenar Prize, the Frankfurt Peace Prize, and a knighthood in France’s Legion of Honor. Her works include The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry, Algerian White, and So Vast the Prison. She was the first Algerian woman to be admitted to France’s prestigious École Normale Supérieure, and the first writer from the Maghreb to be admitted to the Académie Française.
