THE VIRTUOUS ONES

Yasmina Khadra

(Éditions Mialet-Barrault, 544 pages, 2022)

***Long-listed for the Grand Prix du roman de l’Académie française 2022***

***TRANSLATION SAMPLE AVAILABLE HERE***

2022 Recipient of the Albertine Translation Prize

A riveting coming-of-age novel following the difficult path of a young Algerian who is enrolled in World War I, and then faces many obstacles when returning to his country.

Algeria, 1914. Yacine Chéraga lives with his family in a little village under the rule of a local official (caïd) named Gaïd Brahim, who reigns as a tyrant. So when he asks Yacine to come to his palace, the villagers are in uproar. What does he possibly want from Yacine? It turns out that Gaïd Brahim orders him to go to war in the place of Gaïd’s son, who is inept at fighting—a humiliation Gaïd cannot tolerate. Yacine will be rewarded with lands and the most beautiful virgin of the region when he returns—if he returns! Of course, he will have to keep this pact secret from his family as well as the administration.

Arriving at the front line trenches, Yacine and his comrades experience the horrors of war as they are caught in the tumult of shells and grapeshot. They also face racist insults from their superiors, who have no more consideration for them than for animals. Many men die, but Yacine survives.

After the armistice, he returns to Algeria. He expects to be welcomed as a hero, but a bad surprise awaits him. Gaïd sends his henchman to kill him instead of reward him. Thus begins Yacine’s long escape through Algeria, full of pitfalls…

This epic novel portrays Algeria at the beginning of the twentieth century, showing with great acuity its social structure, its poverty—and the racism from the inside.

With The Virtuous Ones, Khadra is at the top of his art, showing that he is one of the greatest contemporary writers from Algeria.

Yasmina Khadra was born in 1955 in Kenadsa, Algeria. After serving for twenty-five years in the Algerian army, he moved to France in 2001. By then he had published several books but gained international recognition with The Attack (Nan A. Talese, 2007) and The Swallows of Kabul (Nan A. Talese, 2004).