Rabat – French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud is facing legal actions in France over claims that his novel “Houris” – which won the 2024 Prix Goncourt – borrows heavily from the life of Algerian woman Saâda Arbane without her consent.
Arbane has filed a lawsuit for invasion of privacy, arguing that her personal experiences form the foundation of the book’s narrative.
A procedural hearing is set for May 7 at the Paris judicial court.
Houris, a novel partly set in Oran, follows Aube, a young woman left mute after surviving an attack by an Islamist who slit her throat on December 31, 1999.
Arbane spoke publicly about her allegations in November on Algerian television, stating that Aube’s story mirrors her own.
Her legal filing, consulted by AFP and Mediapart outlet, includes multiple testimonies supporting her claim.
She is seeking €200,000 in damages and requests a public acknowledgment of any court ruling in her favor, insisting that the resemblance between her life and the novel cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence.
The lawsuit details that Arbane received psychiatric treatment between 2015 and 2023 from Aicha Dehdouh, who married Daoud in 2016.
Arbane maintains that she never permitted her story to be used and that she explicitly refused three times, most recently in 2023.
Her lawyers, William Bourdon, and Lily Ravon, describe the case as “exceptional” in legal disputes involving fiction and privacy.
The lawsuit presents several passages from Houris that describe Aube’s family, the attack, and details such as scars and tattoos, elements that Arbane claims are drawn directly from her own life.
Daoud, who is also the subject of a separate complaint in Algeria, denied the allegations in December, stating on France Inter that the story in question was already public knowledge in Algeria.
He also said that his novel does not tell Arbane’s life story. His publisher, Gallimard, denounced what it called “violent defamatory campaigns” against the author, accusing certain media outlets of acting in line with Algeria’s government.
Houris remains banned in Algeria under a law prohibiting publications about Algeria’s civil war from 1992 to 2002, a decade of violence that left at least 200,000 dead.
Daoud joins an extensive list of blacklisted Algerian authors, such as Boualem Sansal, who has also transgressed the Algerian regime’s censorship on its bleak history. Sansal recently made headlines for being kidnapped and arrested by the regime, and he still remains in detention.
