Maghreb - ein kleine Weltgeschichte von Sansal, Boualem

Born in 1949, Boualem Sansal lives in Boumerdès, near Algiers. His first novel Le Serment des Barbares [The Barbarians' Sermon] (1999) won the Prix du Premier Roman. He is the acclaimed the author of An Unfinished Business, which Bloomsbury published in 2010. His books have won many prizes, including France's Prix du premier roman he has also recently been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2003 he was dismissed from his government job for criticising the Algerian government and in 2006 his books were banned in his native country following the publication of an open letter to the Algerian government, Poste restante: Alger, lettre de colère et d'espoir à mes compatriotes. Today he is considered not only one of Algeria's most important writers, but a literary figure of international stature, his books have been published in seventeen languages. Frank Wynne has won three major prizes for his translations: the 2002 IMPAC for Atomised by Michel Houellbecq, the 2005 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for Windows on the World by Frédéric Beigbeder and the 2008 Scott Moncrieff Prize for Holiday in a Coma by the same author.