Novel
ريح الجنوب
Not translated into English
Abdelhamid Benhedouga · 1971
Synopsis
In an Algerian village, shortly after independence, Abed, a well-off landowner threatened by the agrarian reform, wants to marry his daughter Nafissa to Malek, a former fighter now mayor, who suspects him of having informed for the French during the war. But Nafissa, home for the summer from her studies in Algiers, refuses this marriage and will not stay shut up in the house, at the cost of a harsh conflict with her parents. Around them move old Rahma, who counsels the women, the shepherd Rabah and the village coffee seller.
Context
Published in Algiers in 1971 by the Société nationale d'édition et de diffusion, the novel is regarded as the first true Algerian novel in Arabic, and its author as the founder of that prose, alongside Tahar Ouettar. In a realistic, almost documentary style, it portrays the countryside on the eve of the agrarian revolution, the conflict of generations and the condition of women, as well as the choice between forgiveness and revenge in the aftermath of the war. Marcel Bois translated it into French in 1975, Marcelino Villegas into Spanish in 1981, and Mohamed Slim Riad brought it to the screen as Wind from the South.
Who it is for
For a founding novel about a young woman who refuses the fate imposed on her, in the aftermath of Algerian independence.
Prizes and reception
The Arab Writers Union placed it among the hundred and five best Arabic novels, and it has had some twenty translations.