Novel
The Watchers
Les Vigiles
Tahar Djaout · 1991
Synopsis
In the suburbs of Algiers, Mahfoudh Lemdjad, a young physics teacher, has developed a modern loom that he would like to patent and present at an inventors' fair in Germany. He runs up against an administration that multiplies forms and refusals, even over the issuing of a simple passport. In the same street, Menouar Ziada, a melancholy veteran, notices the inventor's comings and goings, and a group of former mujahideen begins to watch his workshop.
Context
The novel was published by Seuil in 1991. Through the inventor who is discouraged and the war veterans who make themselves guardians of order, it denounces a society that stifles its inventive minds, between political paternalism and the rise of religious fanaticism, under the one-party regime. Its English translation, by Marjolijn de Jager, was published in the United States by Ruminator Books in the early two thousands, together with that of the author's last novel.
Who it is for
A novel in French of about two hundred pages, a political fable that is easy to read, in which black humour accompanies the criticism of a stifling administration.
Prizes and reception
Prix Méditerranée in 1991, the very year of its publication; the novel is available in English under the title The Watchers.
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