His latest novel, “The Scar,” is about the Algerian civil war of the 1990s that claimed at least 200,000 lives. Daoud wrote it in exile in France and won the Goncourt Prize in 2024.
After a law was introduced in 2005, anyone who speaks publicly in Algeria about the civil war risks a prison sentence.
After Daoud received the Goncourt Prize, the Algerian authorities issued two arrest warrants against him, and he was sued by an Algerian woman who alleged he stole her life story in the novel.
In a recent interview with TT, he denied the theft allegations and said that both the woman and her story are well known in Algeria.
