A Conversation with Anouar Benmalek on his Novels Fils du Shéol & L’amour au temps des scélérats

<p>SWANA Region Radio co-hosts Hamoud Salhi and David Lloyd are&nbsp;joined by the Algerian-French novelist, <a href="https://twitter.com/anouarbenmalek?lang=en"><strong>Anouar Benmalek</strong></a>. Anouar Benmalek is an esteemed novelist, journalist, mathematician, and poet and a dual Algerian and French citizen. He has won several of France’s prestigious literary prizes and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His historical novels examine the lives of ordinary people living in violent times, that is, under conditions of genocide, political repression, racism, and religious fundamentalism, and have at times led to violent recrimination and even death threats against him. His novels available in English include <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lovers-Algeria-anouar-benmalek/dp/1860468683/ref=sr_1_3?qid=1657233305&amp;refinements=p_27%3AAnouar+Benmalek&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-3" target="_blank"><u><em>The Lovers of Algeria</em></u></a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/CHILD-ANCIENT-PEOPLE-Anouar-Benmalek/dp/1843430533/ref=sr_1_26?qid=1657233476&amp;refinements=p_27%3AAnouar.-+BENMALEK&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-26" target="_blank"><u><em>The Child of an Ancient People</em></u></a>.</p> <p>Benmalek’s recent novel, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fils-du-Sh%C3%A9ol-Anouar-Benmalek/dp/2702156371"><em>Fils du Shéol</em></a> (<em>Son of Sheol</em>) is, in part, about the Jewish Holocaust, making him the first Arab writer to write a novel about the Holocaust.&nbsp; Perhaps even more importantly, the novel also encompasses the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa, now Namibia, under German colonial rule in the early 20th century. That genocide and its concentration and labor camps established the template for later genocides, from the Armenian genocide in Turkey to the Holocaust itself.</p> <p>Today, we talk not only about <em>Fils du Shéol,</em> but also about Benmalek’s latest novel, <a href="https://www.babelio.com/livres/Benmalek-LAmour-au-temps-des-scelerats/1333176"><em>L’amour a