A major novel that tackles one of the great taboos of Muslim
culture - the Shoah.
Translated from the French by Frank Wynne
Born in 1949, Boualem Sansal lives in Boumerdès, near Algiers. His
first novel Le Serment des barbares [The Barbarians' Sermon] (1999)
won the Prix du Premier Roman. In 2003 he was dismissed from his
government job for criticising the Algerian government. Today he is
considered not only one of Algeria's most important writers, but a
literary figure of international stature. An Unfinished Business
won the Grand Prix RTL LIRE 2008.
Frank Wynne has won three major prizes for his translations: the
2002 IMPAC for Atomised by Michel Houellebecq, the 2005 Independent
Foreign Fiction Prize for Windows on the World by Frédéric
Beigbeder and the 2008 Scott Moncrieff Prize for Holiday in a Coma
by the same author.
'In his desire to denounce injustice, lies and diktats of all kinds, to fight against amnesia and historical revisionism, but also to remember, nothing seems able to stop Boualem Sansal. Neither the violent reviews which he has received in his own country, nor the censorship to which his most recent books have been subjected ... One of the events of the literary season.' Christine Rousseau, (headline review in) Le Monde 'One has to understand that in the Arab-Muslim countries, the Shoah is generally disregarded, sometimes played down or even denied altogether. In breaking this taboo, Boualem Sansal tries to make understood to his own people that this momentous event in Jewish memory is also a metaphysical question that concerns all human beings. [An Unfinished Business] is to be hailed for its virtuoso structure and its concern for the universal and its political courage.' Les Inrockuptibles
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