International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) Longlist 2021.

In downtown Oran, north-west Algeria, on the morning of the anniversary of the country’s independence, a former fighter in the struggle for freedom is found murdered. Kerim Sultani, head of the anti-terrorism unit, cuts short his holiday to take charge of the case. Three questions are on his mind: who killed Miloud Sabri? Why on this day in particular? And does this mean a return to the 1990s years of terror and the killings of opponents? The investigation begins in downtown and suburban Oran and surprising plot twists follow. We meet complex characters and discover secrets from the history of the Algerian war and some of the events in the following sixty years of independence. The novel touches upon themes of love, violence, hatred, loyalty and betrayal, until finally the mystery of the crime is solved unexpectedly.

Amara Lakhous is a writer born in Algiers in 1970. Currently living in New York, he writes in Arabic and Italian. He has a degree in philosophy from the University of Algiers and obtained a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Rome and lived in Italy for 18 years