"A compelling storyteller, fresh and engaging."
Karen Jennings, An Island, longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize
Media
Talking about Sand Roses on Radio Algeria International and Watanya TV.
SAND ROSES is a tale of resistance, sisterhood and the shameful past of two colliding nations. This extraordinarily immersive narrative thrusts its reader into the Algerian city of Bousaada during the 1930s and the story of the Nailiya dancers.
RUNNER-UP FOR THE 2022 ISLAND PRIZE FOR DEBUT AFRICAN NOVELS
By strange coincidence I recently came across the writer that you will soon be getting to know HAMZA KOUDRI, he's a crazy writer just the way I like them. His novel SAND ROSES are a historical thriller set in Boussaada in the 1930s, we follow the story of two Nailit girls Fahima and Salima who accidentally commit a crime against the French soldier at the beginning of the book. The investigation then moves back and forth between the time they arrived in the city of joy and the time of the accident. Far from being orientalist, theorists explore a little documented region of Algerian history. The research is exceptional, and the mores and customs of the Ouled Nail tribe are dissected and described in the refined style that serves the plot masterfully. Boussada is a character in its own right in this novel, imposing, rough, moody, merciful but never neutral. Between historical intrigue, conspiracy theories, the legends that surround the tribes of Boussada and French colonization as a backdrop, Hamza Koudri juggles historical fiction and reality to blend the small story with the big one and offer his reader a breathless page turner that is accreted to contemporary Algerian literature.
Reslane Lounici
Blogger
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John Doe
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