Houris

“I am the truest trace, the firmest proof of all we lived through in ten years in Algeria. I carry the history of an entire war, written on my skin since I was a child.” Aube is a young Algerian woman, mute, her vocal cords destroyed and a scar across her throat. She can tell her story only to the daughter she carries within her, but does she have the right to keep this child in a country that has passed laws to punish anyone who speaks of the civil war? She sets out for her native village, where it all began, and where the dead may yet answer her. Winner of the 2024 Prix Goncourt.