Author(s): Kamel Daoud

Fiction

A tour-de-force reimagining of Camus s"The Stranger," from the point of view of the mute Arab victims. " The New Yorker" He 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. In 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. "The Stranger "is 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, "The Meursault Investigation "is 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."