J
Sara al-Nams
The main protagonist of J is a poor young man from the Algerian city of Oran who decides to travel to the desert to escape from his traumatic past. On the bus taking him south, he meets a mysterious young woman (called “J”) who astonishes him with her stories, including her shocking experience of abuse by her father. The novel explores the dreams and pain of Algerian young people, the memory of the 1990s Algerian civil war, the crisis of language and identity, and how an individual can belong to a country and yet be a foreigner to his/her own body. The two protagonists exchange dangerous confidences and confessions, until the heart of the truth is reached.
Publisher
Dar al-Adab
Nomination
2021 Longlist
Sara al-Nams
Country of origin Algeria
About the author
Sara al-Nams is a novelist and short story writer, born in 1989 in Tiaret, Algeria. She graduated with a B.A. in English Language from Ferhat Abbas University for Languages and Literature, Sétif province. Her first novel, Love With An Algerian Flavour, was published in 2012 and was followed by Water and Salt – Letters to a Palestinian Prisoner (2016) and J (2019). She has taught English and worked as an editor. Currently, she manages the Algerian “Ajniha” publishing house.