Meursault Investigation

A tour-de-force reimagining of Camus’s The Stranger … the author seeks not to re-indict the colonizing French but to relate all the disappointments that the dream of free Algeria has produced for the ‘natives’ particularly their degradation by political Islam. ‘Humour erupts in The Meusrsault Investigation every time there is tragedy and this recipe for the Algerian absurd gives Daoud’s book its literary sting.' The Nation' He was the brother of “the Arab” killed by the infamous Meursault the antihero of Camus’s classic novel. Seventy years after that event Harun who has lived since childhood in the shadow of his sibling’s memory refuses to let himremain anonymous: he gives his brother a story and a name –Musa – and describes the events that led to Musa’s casual murder on a dazzlingly sunny beach. Harun is an old man tormented by frustration. In a bar in Oran night after night he ruminates on his solitude on his anger with men desperate for a god and on his disarray when faced with a country that has so disappointed him. A stranger among his own people he wants to be granted finally the right to die. The Stranger is of course central to Daoud’s novel in which he both endorses and criticizes one of the most famous novels in the world. A worthy complement to its great predecessor The Mersault Investigation is not only a profound meditation on Arab identity and the disastrous effects of colonialism in Algeria but also a stunning work of literature in its own right told in a unique and affecting voice. SHORTLISTED FOR THE GONCOURT PRIZE 2014 WINNER OF THE PRIX DES CINQ CONTINENTS DE LA FRANCOPHONIE 2014 WINNER OF THE PRIX FRANCOIS MAURIAC 2014 LONGLISTED FOR THE RENAUDOT PRIZE 2014.