Amin Zaoui

Amin Zaoui is an Algerian novelist who writes in both Arabic and French. He is Professor of Comparative Literature and Contemporary Thought at the Central University of Algiers, and previously taught in the Women’s Studies Department at the University of Paris. He has won numerous international prizes, including the 1998 French Secondary School Students Prize and the 2007 Cultural Dialogue Prize awarded by the President of Italy. He was director of the Algerian National Library until 2008 and was head of the Algerian branch of the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures. His Arabic novels include: The Neighing of the Body (1982), Satan's Road (2009), The Goatherd (2011, longlisted for the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction), Sensual Delight (2012), The Queen (2014), Leg Over Leg (2016, longlisted for the 2018 International Prize for Arabic Fiction), The Pals (2018) and The Pasha’s Secretary (2019). Among his most successful French novels are La Soumission (1998), Haras de Femmes (2001), Festin de Mensonges (2007), La Chambre de la Vierge Impure (2009) and L’Enfant de l’Oeuf (2017). His novels have been translated into over 13 languages.