Assia Djebar Libri

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 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 blood. This utterly unique book grows from conversations remembered and imagined, meditations on her fallen literary/intellectual/spiritual 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.

What happens when catastrophe becomes an everyday occurrence? Each of the seven stories in Assia Djebar’s The Tongue’s Blood Does Not Run Dry reaches into the void where normal and impossible realities coexist. All the stories were written in 1995 and 1996—a time when, by official accounts, some two hundred thousand Algerians were killed in Islamist assassinations and government army reprisals. Each story grew from a real conversation on the streets of Paris between the author and fellow Algerians about what was happening in their native land. Contemporary events are joined on the page by classical themes in Arab literature, whether in the form of Berber texts sung by the women of the Mzab or the tales from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. The Tongue’s Blood Does Not Run Dry beautifully explores the conflicting realities of the role of women in the Arab world. With renowned and unparalleled skill, Assia Djebar gives voice to her longing for a world she has put behind her.

A pioneering work of interconnected perspectives, Children of the New World is a novel of insurgency and resistance by one of the Arab world’s most distinguished woman writers. “Assia Djebar's point of view is feminist and anti-colonial, but her novel is no propaganda piece." ― New York Times Book Review Centering women in political resistance, Children of the New World follows a robust cast of women in a rural Algerian town who find themselves joined in solidarity as they empower one another to engage in the fight for independence. Narrating the resistance movement across a variety of perspectives—from traditional wives to liberated students to political organizers—Djebar powerfully depicts the circumstances that drive oppressed communities to violence while she movingly reveals the tragic costs of war. Children of the New World was written following the author’s own involvement in the Algerian resistance to colonial French rule, making it both intensely personal and deeply resonant. First published in 1962, this timeless novel “embodies Djebar's refined literary sensibility, empathy for people caught in times of violent change, and penetrating insights into the complex and painful difficulties between men and women” ( Booklist ).

The narrative weaves together the experiences of a modern, educated Algerian woman navigating a male-dominated society filled with contradictions. It explores cross-cultural themes through the author's choice to write in French, highlighting the tension between written and oral traditions in Arab culture. The story reflects on the complexities of life in a post-colonial Algeria, examining the impact of revolution and the challenges faced by an Algerian woman in exile.

Après 20 ans d'exil en France, un Algérien revient chez lui et se retrouve déchiré entre son éducation française et la réalité quotidienne algérienne. Cette dualité enrichit son expérience et soulève des questions sur l'identité et l'appartenance.

Frühling 1989. Thelja fährt nach Straßburg, um neun Nächte mit François zu verbringen. Neun Liebesnächte voll sinnlicher Trunkenheit, aber auch geteilter Erinnerungen. In den frühen Morgenstunden flaniert sie durch die Gassen und an den Ufern entlang, wo der Nebel sich langsam lichtet. Stets ist das Straßburger Münster im Zentrum ihrer Gedanken, ihrer Spaziergänge, während sie in die Geschichte dieser Stadt und ihrer Menschen eintaucht. Unter der Oberfläche erkennt sie beklemmende Schatten der Vergangenheit. Sogar in den lustvollen Stunden der Leidenschaft können sie aufbrechen wie schlecht verheilte Wunden.

Dans le royaume des femmes, dans l'atmosphère intime d'un hammam, une jeune fille entend le mot "ennemi" en parlant des maris. Ce terme, transmis depuis des siècles, représente la source de désespoir pour les femmes. L'héroïne, 37 ans, mariée et intellectuelle à Alger, lutte contre sa passion pour un jeune Berbère par l'écriture.