Prague, Sept 20 (CTK) – French writer and Prix Goncourt winner Hedi Kaddour presented his book Opposite Banks at the opening of the French Literary Autumn (Automne litteraire francais) new festival at the French Institute in Prague on Tuesday.
The other two festival guests are Sorj Chalandon, journalist from the satirical weekly Le Canard enchaine, and Kamel Daoud, former editor-in-chief of the Algerian daily Le quotidien d’Oran, festival director Katarina Hornackova said.
“In cooperation with Czech publishers, we would like to attract people to meet contemporary authors, Kaddour, Chalandon and Daoud, stars of the French and world literary scene. They refute the traditional image of French literature as being preoccupied with itself and the idea that French literature is written solely in France,” she added.
Kaddour, who is teaching writing in a course for future journalists in France, took part in a debate in Plzen, west Bohemia on Tuesday and he will speak about Opposite Banks at the French Institute on Wednesday. The book deals with the recent past of Europe and its current problems and demystifies the conflict of cultures.
Chalandon, who worked as a war correspondent and commented on war conflicts in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan, will join a debate at the French Institute on September 29. His novel The Fourth Wall, set in war-torn Lebanon, was published in Czech recently.
Daoud, against whom a fatwa was issued in 2014, will read from his works in the Senate seat in Prague on October 9.
His articles in Le Monde and New York Times, which stirred up stormy polemics, commented on the sexual attacks on women by immigrants in Germany during New Year’s Eve in Germany. He claims the Arab world has a distorted relation to women and sexuality. His words were sharply criticised by Western leftist intellectuals.
His debut novel, The Meursault Investigation, which retells Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger (1942) and won the Prix Goncourt, was published in a Czech translation last year.
