Kamel Daoud arrives for his interview in Berlin in a black limousine, accompanied by two men dressed in black who never leave his side. The Algerian writer, who now lives in France, is under police protection: His latest book not only won him France's most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt — it has also put him in grave danger. "Houris," which has now appeared in German, is a novel that recounts the massacres and torture that took place during the Algerian civil war. Not only is it taboo to discuss the war in Algeria, but in 2005 a law was passed forbidding it — ostensibly to promote "national reconciliation." "When you write a novel like this, you make enemies of Islamists, the regime and even intellectuals from the extreme left-wing decolonial movement," said Daoud. "You don't please anyone. A 17-year-old idiot with something to prove can be as much of a threat as the regime." "Houris" has been banned in Algeria — in fact, all of Daoud's books have been removed from stores. Algerian authorities have issued two international arrest warrants against him, but the global police organization Interpol did not accept them. The cover of a book reading Huris with an image of a crescent moonThe cover of a book reading Huris with an image of a crescent moon Originally published in French, a German verion of 'Houris' ('Huris') was published in 2025Image: Matthes & Seitz Berlin Additionally, a woman has filed a civil lawsuit against the writer, accusing him of basing the central character on her own story without permission. Daoud claims this is defamation, and alleges that the legal action was orchestrated by the regime. Although the war of liberation against French colonial rule (1954-62) still shapes Algerian identity today, the government in Algiers is doing everything in its power to ensure people forget the civil war of the 1990s. At that time, the national army and Islamist terrorist groups engaged in bloody fighting. Since then, much has remained in the dark, even the number of fatalities, which is usually estimated at around 200,000. As for the suffering of individual victims, this is rarely mentioned.