Amin Zaoui

Amin Zaoui is an Algerian novelist and thinker, born in Bab al Assa, Tlemcen, Algeria, in 1956. He writes in both Arabic and French. He is Professor of Comparative Literature and Contemporary Thought at the Central University of Algiers and was Director General of the National Library of Algeria from 2008 to 2022. 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 also 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 IPAF 2013); Sensual Delight (2012); The Queen (2014); Leg Over Leg (2016, longlisted for IPAF 2018); The Pals (2018); The Pasha’s Secretary (2019); and Chewing Gum (2022). Amongst 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 13 languages.