Houwariya

Houwariya is a palm reader from the densely populated Akmeel neighborhood in the city of Oran, Algeria, where crime and drugs are rife. At the outset, Houwariya finds herself in the women’s ward of a hospital for neurological diseases, suffering from memory loss and unsure how she got there. Set over two decades, before and after the Black Decade of the 1990s’ Algerian civil war, the novel explores what life was like for ordinary people during that nightmarish period, and how they managed to survive, in a climate of fear. While some characters, like Houwariya’s brother Hawari, become oppressors, others are forced to flee the country.