• What is our responsibility towards our (unborn) children?
• What does it mean to be called “Muslim”?
• Discovering Algerian literature via the US.
• How does the language we speak affect our identity?
• (In) denial: France and the harkis.

Books in focus: a trilogy by Zahia Rahmani (France/Algeria):

• Moze
• “Musulman” roman (“Muslim” a novel)
• France, récit d’une enfance (France, story of a childhood)

Find out more about Nour and Assia in their guest profiles here.

Special thanks to Sabine Wespieser Editions and Deep Vellum Publishing for providing copies of these books.

Algerian book suggestions

• L’âne mort by Chawki Amari (no English translation) – Nour, @nourstuckinabookstore
• Bleu, blanc, vert by Maïssa Bey (no English translation) – Assia, @shereadsox
• Portrait du colonisateur and Portrait du colonisé (Eng. title: The Colonizer and the Colonised) by Albert Memmi – Houda, @loublsmn
• La grande maison by Mohammed Dib (no English translation; available in Italian: “La casa grande”) – Noor, @noor_reads
• La colline oubliée by Mouloud Mammeri (no English translation) – Dyhia, @dyhia_medjouti
• La question (Eng. title: The Question) by Henri Alleg – Farah, @recitsdalgerie
• Ce que le jour doit à la nuit (Eng. title: What the Day Owes the Night) by Yasmina Khadra – Hakim, @hakim_books

For a list of Algerian literature that has been translated into English, have a look at Nadia’s (@_madcha_) list on the Arabic Literature in Translation website.

Other episodes mentioned

• Au Café (Part 1 and Part 2) by Mohammed Dib
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Other books mentioned

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• Le blanc de l’Algérie (Eng. title: Algerian White) by Assia Djebar
• A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
• The Mothers by Brit Bennett

Qur’anic verse mentioned: Surat al-Kahf, 18:82.

Related resources

• ​Fille de harki: relating to the father, country and religion in the writing of Zahia Rahmani by Alison Rice in Polygraphies: Francophone Women Writing Algeria (chapter)
• Archive Rare du Camp de St Ardoise (video – in French)
• Building Islam as a Race in French Colonial Law by Mouhamadou Ndiaye (article)
• Unrequited Loyalty: The Harkis in Postcolonial France by Michael Lejman (academic paper)
• France Recognises Debt to Algerian Troops by Jon Henley (article)
• Emmanuel Macron Tries – Slowly – to Reckon with France’s Past by Yasmeen Serhan (article)
• Veterans: The French in Algeria on Al Jazeera English (documentary – focus on European soldiers)
• Algerian Harkis Appeal for Full Recognition on France 24 (news report)
• On Translating Zahia Rahmani’s Invisible Tongues by Lara Vernaud (article by the translator of France, récit d’une enfance)
• Translating Zahia Rahmani: An Interview with Matt Reeck by Erik Noonan (article – interview with the translator of “Musulman” roman)