Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Kamel Daoud
Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics
Images
Daoud, Kamel
Quick Facts
Born:
June 17, 1970, Mostaganem, Algeria (age 56)
Awards And Honors:
Prix Goncourt (2015)
See all related content
Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Daoud, Kamel
Daoud, Kamel Kamel Daoud, 2015.

Kamel Daoud

Algerian writer
Written by
Steven R. Serafin
Director, Writing Center, Hunter College, City University of New York. Coeditor of The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature and The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature.
Steven R. Serafin
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Kamel Daoud (born June 17, 1970, Mostaganem, Algeria) is an Algerian writer and journalist who won the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman for his novel Meursault, contre-enquĂȘte (2013; The Meursault Investigation).

Daoud, the eldest of six children, was born into an Arabic-speaking Muslim family in Algeria. As a teenager he embraced the emerging Islamic movement during the early 1980s, but he became disillusioned and openly opposed to religious fervour. He later was outspoken in his criticism of contemporary Algerian society and rejected the tenets of what he saw as misguided nationalism and Islamism that denied self-expression and intellectual freedom. After having studied French literature at the University of Oran, Daoud decided on a career as a writer. He established himself as a journalist, and in 1996 he became affiliated with Le Quotidien d’Oran, a French-language newspaper, to which he contributed a regular column under the title “Raina Raikoum” (“My Opinion, Your Opinion”). He published a selection of his commentary in 2002, followed by the novellas La Fable du nain (2003; “The Fable of the Dwarf”) and Ô Pharaon (2004; “Pharaoh”). In 2008 he released La PrĂ©face du nĂšgre (“The Preface of the Negro”), a collection of short stories that was republished in 2011 as Le Minotaure 504.

In 2013 Daoud published his debut novel, Meursault, contre-enquĂȘte, which was conceived as a fictional “counterinvestigation” or retelling of Albert Camus’s L’Étranger (1942; The Stranger). Narrated by the imagined brother of the nameless “Arab” senselessly murdered by the detached and dispassionate Meursault, Daoud’s novel presents a dual portrait of the human condition as envisioned by Camus and reenvisioned by Daoud. In addition to the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman, the work also received the Prix François Mauriac and the Prix des Cinq Continents for Francophone writing (both 2014). However, the novel was not without controversy. Offended by the narrator’s vehement rebuke of religion in Meursault, contre-enquĂȘte, Islamists voiced outrage, denounced the work as blasphemy, and demanded retribution. In 2014 a fatwa, or religious decree, was issued by a radical Salafist imam in Algeria who deemed Daoud an “apostate” and an “enemy” of Islam.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.
By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Steven R. Serafin