{"product_id":"the-meursault-investigation-isbn-9781590517512","title":"The Meursault Investigation","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eBest Translated Novel of the Decade – \u003ci\u003eLit Hub\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA New York Times Notable Book of 2015 — \u003cb\u003eMichiko Kakutani, The Top Books of 2015, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e— \u003cb\u003eTIME Magazine \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eTop Ten Books of 2015 \u003cb\u003e— \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eBest Books of the Year \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e— \u003cb\u003eFinancial Times \u003c\/b\u003eBest Books of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A tour-de-force reimagining of Camus’s \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e, from the point of view of the mute Arab victims.” \u003ci\u003e—The New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe 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 him remain 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.\u003cbr\u003e                 \u003cbr\u003eIn a bar in Oran, night after night, he ruminates on his solitude, on his broken heart, 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. \u003cbr\u003e                 \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Stranger \u003c\/i\u003eis of course central to Daoud’s story, in which he both endorses and criticizes one of the most famous novels in the world. A worthy complement to its great predecessor, \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation \u003c\/i\u003eis 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.\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA New York Times Notable Book of 2015 — \u003cb\u003eMichiko Kakutani, The Top Books of 2015, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e— \u003cb\u003eTIME Magazine \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eTop Ten Books of 2015 \u003cb\u003e— \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eBest Books of the Year \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e— \u003cb\u003eFinancial Times \u003c\/b\u003eBest Books of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] rich and inventive new novel...so convincing and so satisfying that we no longer think of the original story as the truth, but rather come to question it...[a] letter of love rebellion and despair for Algeria.\" \u003ci\u003e—The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Nothing…prepared me for [Daoud’s] first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e, a thrilling retelling of Albert Camus’s 1942 classic, \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e, from the perspective of the brother of the Arab killed by Meursault, Camus’s antihero. The novel...not only breathes new life into \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e; it also offers a bracing critique of postcolonial Algeria... The premise is ingenious: that \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e, about the murder of an unnamed Arab on an Algiers beach, was a true story…\u003ci\u003eMeursault\u003c\/i\u003e is less a critique of \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e than its postcolonial sequel.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Magazine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"[A] stunning debut novel…[A]n intricately layered tale that not only makes us reassess Camus’s novel but also nudges us into a contemplation of Algeria’s history and current religious politics; colonialism and postcolonialism; and the ways in which language and perspective can radically alter a seemingly simple story and the social and philosophical shadows it casts backward and forward.” \u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eMichiko Kakutani, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A tour-de-force reimagining of Camus’s The Stranger, from the point of view of the mute Arab victims.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] retelling of Albert Camus’s classic \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e from an Algerian perspective...[this] debut novel reaped glowing international reviews, literary honors, and then, suddenly, demands for [Daoud’s] public execution.” —\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Daoud has said that his novel is an homage to Albert Camus’s \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e, but it reads more like a rebuke...Where Camus’s godless prose is coolly mathematical in its ratio of words to meaning, Daoud’s work conducts waves of warmth. The sand and the sea and the sky and the stars, which, for Camus, seem to negate life rather than affirm it, are, for Daoud, vital witnesses and participants in his existence.” —NewYorker.com\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"Kamel Daoud's remarkable debut novel isn't simply a postcolonial reimagining but an allegory of his own country and time...[The Meursault Investigation] has the magnetism of its forebear, but its themes of voicelessness and vengeance feel utterly present-day.\" \u003ci\u003e—Vogue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] scorching debut novel that is sure to become an essential companion to Camus’s masterpiece…\u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation...\u003c\/i\u003eis a biting, profound response to French colonialism. It is also a lamentation for a modern Algeria gripped by pious fundamentalism…The book’s brilliance lies in the gradual way Mr. Daoud reveals Harun to be a perfect mirror: the tragic double of Meursault\/Camus… Daoud’s prose is propulsive and charged. The pages glitter with memorable phrases. This brave book is a vertiginous response to a century of trauma.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] mesmerizing first novel...\u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e has an inescapable topical resonance, given the role played by political Islam in Algeria in recent times...an absorbing, independent story and a shrewd critique of a country trapped in history’s time warp.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Daoud neither rejects Camus and his colonial legacy outright nor accepts his work uncritically. His resulting meditations are rich and thought-provoking, both for Algerian and for Western readers.\" \u003ci\u003e—The New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"More than a mere reimagining of the primary text, \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e is layered with allusions to Camus’s life and his other work.\" \u003ci\u003e—The Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Daoud's book stands Camus on his head...What makes Daoud's book so good is that, steeped in independent thinking, it offers an illuminating, if controversial portrait of today's Algeria.\" \u003ci\u003e—Fresh Air, NPR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Give Kamel Daoud credit for audacity. In his debut novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e, the Algerian journalist goes head-to-head with a pillar of 20th century literature…The true measure of the novel…is that Daoud realizes critique is not enough…the power—and, yes, the beauty—of \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation \u003c\/i\u003eis that it moves…to an unexpected integration in which we recognize that for all the intractable divides of faith or nationality, our humanity remains (how can it not?) essentially the same.” \u003ci\u003e—The Los Angeles Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Provocative...What begins as a reproach to \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e for marginalizing 'the second most important character in the book' becomes a lament for Algeria's long battle for independence, first from French colonists and subsequently from authoritarian Islamism.\" \u003ci\u003e—NPR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Remarkable...[Kamel Daoud's] core idea is of startling ingenuity...Daoud...takes Albert Camus’s classic novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e—or more precisely the 'majestically nonchalant' murder of an Arab at the heart of it—and turns that Arab into a human being rather than the voiceless, characterless, nameless object of a 'philosophical crime' by a Frenchman called Meursault on an Algiers beach 20 years before the culmination of Algeria’s brutal war of independence.\" \u003ci\u003e—The International New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e, [Kamel] Daoud has achieved the near impossible: a retelling of a classic that consistently measures up.\" \u003ci\u003e—San Francisco Gate\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"For its incandescence, its precision of phrase and description, and its cross-cultural significance, \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eMeursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e is an instant classic.\" \u003ci\u003e—The Guardian \u003c\/i\u003e(UK)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[Kamel] Daoud's book is energetic and garrulous...he has taken a western classic and used it to illuminate the Algerian mind.\" \u003ci\u003e—The Sunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e is a subversive retelling of Albert Camus’s \u003ci\u003eThe Outsider...\u003c\/i\u003ebut there is far more to his book than a clever deconstruction of a canonical novel...[it is] a penetrating inquiry into loss itself...It is a testament to Daoud’s subtle, profound talent that his story works both as a novelistic response to Camus and as a highly original story in its own right. \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e is perhaps the most important novel to emerge out of the Middle East in recent memory, and its concerns could not be more immediate. \" \u003ci\u003e—Financial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In just 160 spare pages, Daoud recounts–and challenges–not only the original narrative of Meursualt, the anti-hero created by Camus, but through bestowing a name, family, legacy, to a forgotten victim, he sharply deconstructs the troubled decades of French-Algerian history, explores the erasure of identity and the legacy of colonialism, examines the consequences of violent independence and the ensuing, ongoing reconstruction of a national identity. To begin to understand all that is surely worth an investment of just a few hours of reading.\" \u003ci\u003e—The Christian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In...\u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e, Mr. Daoud corrects, or 'writes back,' to Camus’ [\u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e] from the point of view of the dead Arab’s brother...\u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e invokes the language, images and plot of \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e and adapts them to the Algerian context...Mr. Daoud’s writing is like a live wire flowing with anger. It sparks fresh insights, raises important questions about the links between literature and politics, and challenges us to view the literary past and political present in new ways.” \u003ci\u003e—The Pittsburgh Post Gazette \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Quirky\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eand compelling\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eit is a meditation by turns passionate, cynical, and angry on power, freedom, and the indifference of the universe.\" \u003ci\u003e—Philly.com\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In the hands of Algerian journalist Kamel Daoud, \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e has become the springboard for another novel that serves as both homage and rebuke to Camus’ masterpiece…It is a brilliant, infinitely rich tour de force of the imagination that never mentions Camus by name but gives Meursault’s victim not only a name–Musa–but a history, a family and a would-be future…Its originality of vision carries the book a long way toward mastery of its form…\u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e stirs our imagination, showing that literary classics are never finished.\" \u003ci\u003e—The Wichita Eagle\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Humor erupts in \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e every time there is tragedy, and this recipe for the Algerian absurd gives Daoud’s book its literary sting…For Daoud, the novel is above all an opportunity to engage with the legacy of Algerian independence, half a century old, and to ask what the country has made of its liberation. Daoud turns the novel into an aesthetic platform for his particular sense of the Algerian absurd: the tyranny of official religion and an asphyxiating national history.” \u003ci\u003e—The Nation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Camus’s \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e is vividly reimagined in Daoud’s intensely atmospheric novel...readers will be captivated.\" \u003ci\u003e—Publishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e(Starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The nameless Arab victim of Albert Camus's \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e receives a biography and a name in this thoughtful, controversial rejoinder from the other side of the colonial question...Fiction with a strong moral edge, offering a Rashomon-like response to a classic novel.\" —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] blazing, brilliantly conceived debut novel...An eye-opening, humbling read, splendid whether or not you know and love the original.\" \u003ci\u003e—Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e, Kamel Daoud takes us to a territory that is clearly his own. I loved the unexpected depth to the restorative nature of the text, which enthralls the readers all the more, especially when they are familiar with Albert Camus’s \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e.  It is a wonderful novel and I enjoyed reading it.” —Nuruddin Farah, award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eHiding in Plain Sight\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A superb novel…In the future, \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e will be read side by side.” —\u003ci\u003eLe Monde des livres\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Very beautiful writing, original, located between suppressed anger and bursts of elation.” —\u003ci\u003eLes Echos\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A breathtaking and effectively realized novel. \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e becomes a palindrome…\u003ci\u003e The Meursault Investigation \u003c\/i\u003eapproaches the incredible, in that it reverses the perspective and point of view not without an emphatic ferociousness, all while playing with the prose and perspective of \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e.” —\u003ci\u003eLa Croix\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A remarkable homage to its model.” —\u003ci\u003eLe Nouvel observateur\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “An intense and surprising story.” —\u003ci\u003eLa Montagne\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eKamel Daoud \u003c\/b\u003eis an Algerian journalist based in Oran, where he writes for the \u003ci\u003eQuotidien d’Oran\u003c\/i\u003e—the third largest French-language Algerian newspaper. He contributes a weekly column to \u003ci\u003eLe Point, \u003c\/i\u003eand his articles have appeared in \u003ci\u003eLibération, Le Monde, Courrier International, \u003c\/i\u003eand are regularly reprinted around the world. A finalist for the Prix Goncourt, \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation \u003c\/i\u003ewon the Prix François Mauriac and the Prix des Cinq-Continents de la francophonie. International rights to the novel have been sold in twenty countries. A dramatic adaptation of \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation \u003c\/i\u003ewill be performed at the 2015 Festival d’Avignon, and a feature film is slated for release in 2017.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Cullen\u003c\/b\u003e was the translator of many books from Spanish, French, German, and Italian, including Siegfried Lenz’s \u003ci\u003eThe Turncoat\u003c\/i\u003e, Juli Zeh’s \u003ci\u003eEmpty Hearts\u003c\/i\u003e, Patrick Modiano’s \u003ci\u003eVilla Triste\u003c\/i\u003e, Kamel Daoud’s \u003ci\u003eThe Meursault Investigation\u003c\/i\u003e, and Philippe Claudel’s \u003ci\u003eBrodeck\u003c\/i\u003e.Mama’s still alive today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe doesn’t say anything now, but there are many tales she could tell. Unlike me: I’ve rehashed this story in my head so often, I almost can’t remember it anymore.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI mean, it goes back more than half a century. It happened, and everyone talked about it.  People still do, but they mention only one dead man, they feel no compunction about doing that, even though there were two of them, two dead men. Yes, two. Why does the other one get left out? Well, the original guy was such a good storyteller, he managed to make people forget his crime, whereas the other one was a poor illiterate created by God only, it seems, to take a bullet and return to dust—an anonymous person who didn’t even have the time to be given a name.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’ll tell you this up front: the other dead man, the murder victim, was my brother. There’s nothing left of him. There’s only me, left to speak in his place, sitting in this bar, waiting for condolences no one’s ever going to offer me. Laugh if you want, but this is more or less my mission: I peddle offstage silence, trying to sell my story while the theater empties out. As a matter of fact, that’s the reason why I’ve learned to speak this language, and to write it too: so I can speak in the place of a dead man, so I can finish his sentences for him. The murderer has become famous, and his story’s too well written for me to get any ideas about imitating him. He wrote in his own language. Therefore I’m going to do what was done in this country after Independence: I’m going to take the stones from the old houses the colonists left behind, remove them one by one, and build my own house, my own language.","brand":"Other Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303897813221,"sku":"NP9781590517512","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590517512.jpg?v=1767740494","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-meursault-investigation-isbn-9781590517512","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}