The Barbary Figs

Partly the retelling of the last half-century of Algerian history%E2%80%94the war against France, the rise of the Front de Lib%C3%A9ration Nationale (FLN), and the suppression by the FLN of rival political parties%E2%80%94 Boudjedra's latest, winner of the 2010 Arab Book Prize is also the "partly autobiographical" story of two cousins, Omar and Rashid, sharing a present day flight from Algiers to Constantine. During this hour-long commute, the cousins recollect the "terrible maelstrom" of Algerian history and their own "complex, muddled, almost amorous relationship," from their shared boyhood in Constantine, to becoming resistance fighters in the Fellagha, to grown men disenchanted by the FLN's "struggle for power and lust for money." As Rashid reflects about his upbringing in pre-war Constantine, Omar tries to "attain a certain level of clarity" about his father, the Police Commissioner of French-ruled Batna, and the disappearance years ago of his younger brother Salim, an agent of the Organisation de l'arm%C3%A9e secrete (OAS). Attempting to cull history's "opposing versions of the truth," Boudjedra (The Repudiation) produces a spell-binding narrative that is well aware of the "propensity of history to juxtapose subjectivity with the objectivity of real life." (Feb.)