What to read: the Algerian Civil War, a coming-of-age story by Edward Burns, and a Harlem Renaissance novel

Kamel Daoud. “Houris," NoAge (translated from French by Nadezhda Buntman, 448 pp., 18+)

Franco-Algerian writer and journalist Kamel Daoud has long occupied a special place in French-language literature. He gained widespread recognition after the novel “The Meursault Investigation," in which he reinterpreted Albert Camus's “The Stranger” from the perspective of the murdered Arab's brother. Daoud has repeatedly openly criticized the political situation in Algeria, opposed the silencing of painful pages of history, and, due to his statements, faced threats, legal prosecution, and censorship. “Houris” became his fifth novel and brought the author the 2024 Goncourt Prize. Daoud is the first Algerian writer to receive this award.

At the center of the novel is a young woman, Aube, who as a child was nearly killed during the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s, known as the “Black Decade.” After the attack, she lost her voice. The scar on her neck turned her body into living testimony of a past that the country prefers not to remember. Aube is pregnant and spends the entire book talking to her unborn daughter. She is trying to decide whether she has the right to bring a child into a world where the memory of what she experienced is suppressed by official silence. Parallel to this, the story of the family that owns the bookstore “Houris” unfolds, and the heroine herself sets out to the places where her tragedy once began.

After the war ended, the Algerian authorities passed a law that effectively banned public discussion of the tragedy of the “Black Decade.” As a result, many crimes remained uninvestigated, the exact number of deaths is still unknown, and victims and former militants often continue to live side by side. Daoud shows how this silence affects a person. Aube becomes the voice of those who were long denied the right to speak. Her muteness turns into an image of a society that has lost the ability to openly talk about its own past.

At the same time, the novel is not built solely around one heroine. Dozens of stories pass through the women's hair salon where Aube works. Women recall abductions, violence, the deaths of loved ones, and life after the war. These stories form a general picture of a country where the consequences of the conflict continue to define the present. The novel's title itself also serves this purpose. Houris in Islamic tradition are the maidens of paradise promised to the righteous. Daoud consciously reinterprets this image, connecting it to the unborn girl who will have to live in a world where women continue to fight for the right to their own lives.

After the book's release, controversy erupted around it. The novel was banned from publication in Algeria. Because of it, Gallimard was not allowed to participate in the Algiers Book Fair. Later, lawsuits were filed against Daoud and his wife. One woman claimed that the author used details of her personal story without consent. The writer and the publisher denied these accusations, insisting that all the novel's characters are fictional, although the book is based on real events of the Civil War.

Edward Burns. “Marlboro Street Kid," Kolibri (translated from English by Shasha Martynova, 256 pp., 18+)

Edward Burns is best known as an actor, director, and screenwriter of independent cinema. “Marlboro Street Kid” became his debut novel. Although the author calls the book fiction, it contains many details from his own life. Burns grew up in an Irish-American family; his father served as a police officer, and many family stories, photographs, and memories formed the basis of the plot. During the pandemic, the writer called his mother every day and asked her about the past. These conversations gradually changed the original plan. Burns wanted to write a story about a group of twelve-year-old boys, but in the end, the book's main focus became the relationship between son and mother, family memory, and growing up.

The novel is set in the summer of 1980 on Long Island. The narrator is a twelve-year-old boy from a large Irish-American family. The story begins with the funeral of his beloved grandfather, McSweeney. After that, life returns to its usual course. The hero plays baseball, goes fishing with his father, spends time with friends, attends Catholic school, and gradually notices that everything around him is changing. His mother sinks more and more into melancholy, his parents drift apart, his older brother Tommy becomes less and less like the person the boy once knew. The hero himself is also afraid of crossing that invisible line between childhood and adolescence.

Burns deliberately builds the novel around everyday episodes. Trips to the beach, family gatherings, walks, conversations between neighbors and relatives form the story of growing up. The author shows that a person is changed by dozens of small moments, not one fateful event. That is why the protagonist begins to write down everything he sees around him. After winning a school poetry contest, his father gives him a typewriter and advises him to read Hemingway.

One of the novel's main themes is family memory. The past constantly returns through the stories of older relatives. Tales of the Bronx, Hell's Kitchen, the first generations of the family, and long-gone people become part of the boy's life. The book repeatedly notes that older people love to retell the same stories. Burns explained that this is exactly how memory works in his own family. Thanks to these stories, the past continues to live, and the hero gradually understands who he is and where he came from. Another important theme is change. Parents, neighbors, the neighborhood, New York itself, and relationships within the family all change. The boy observes this without adult certainty, so the narrative retains the natural intonation of a twelve-year-old child. The author managed to preserve a child's perspective on events and not turn the hero into an adult narrator.

Nella Larsen. “Passing," Livebook (translated from English by Dina Batiy, 192 pp., 16+)

Nella Larsen wrote the novel “Passing” in 1929. It is only the writer's second novel, but it cemented her place among the key authors of the Harlem Renaissance. Larsen knew the book's subject well. She grew up in a mixed-race family, lived between two worlds, and repeatedly addressed the question of racial identity. Later, the novel entered university curricula, gained the status of an American classic, and in 2021, Rebecca Hall directed a film adaptation of the same name.

The action takes place in New York and Chicago in the late 1920s. At the center of the plot are two childhood friends, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry. Both could pass for white but make different choices. Irene lives in Harlem with her husband and openly belongs to the African American community. Clare completely changes her life. She passes as a white woman, marries a wealthy white banker, and hides her origin from him. A chance meeting after many years brings the heroines together again and sets off a chain of events that leads to a tragic ending.

At first glance, the novel tells the story of passing — a practice in which a light-skinned person conceals their origin and becomes part of white society. However, Larsen quickly expands the theme. She is interested in the price of such a choice. Clare gains wealth, freedom, and high status but constantly returns to her past. She seeks meetings with old friends, returns to Harlem, and seems to be tempting fate. Irene, on the other hand, values stability. She strives to maintain order and gradually realizes that Clare's presence threatens her family, peace, and self-image.

Larsen does not divide the characters into right and wrong. Both women commit contradictory acts. Clare easily disregards others' interests for her own desires. Irene tries to maintain control over her life but increasingly acts out of jealousy and fear. Because of this, the story extends far beyond a discussion of race. It touches on questions of self-determination, class, marriage, personal freedom, and security.

Interestingly, the novel is written in the third person, but the reader sees events almost exclusively through Irene's eyes. This device leaves the ending open to different interpretations. Debates about the book's final pages and what exactly happened to Clare continue to this day.

Ekaterina Petrova — literary critic for the online newspaper Realnoe Vremya, host of the Telegram channel «Булочки с маком».