A Great Day to Die
Samir Kacimi
A Great Day to Die (Al-Ikhtilaf, Algeria, 2009) tells the story of a journalist who plans to commit suicide by throwing himself from the top of a building. This tense novel relates his story through flashbacks to scenes that tell of physical pleasure and the failings of love. All this unfolds within the chaotic world of the lower and marginalised classes of the popular quarters of Algiers. Will the intellectual hero succeed in carrying out his own death, transforming it into a public spectacle that will immortalise his name and his message of despair to the world?
Nomination
2010 Longlist
Samir Kacimi
Country of origin Algeria
About the author
Samir Kacimi is an Algerian novelist. Born in Algiers in 1974, he graduated with a Law degree and currently works as a newspaper columnist. His first novel was Declaration of Lostness (2009), the first Algerian novel to deal with prison in Algeria, which won the Hashemi Saidani Award for the best Algerian debut. In the same year, he published his second novel A Great Day to Die, the first Algerian novel to reach the longlist of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.