I did not read Simenon, at the time. Our bookshops were disaster victims and our old books managed to do little more then make us dream. We lived in a country with a horror for writers and artists. However, I really liked the American Blacks literature: Chester Himes, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin.
By creating the Superintendent Llob character, I wanted to have a typically Algerian character. Moreover, in my noir novels, Algiers is also a central character. I did not seek to imitate my preferred authors. I wrote in French, but with my sensitivity Bedouin, my Algerian glance, my anger and my Algerian hopes.
Anyway, we also have our own artists, as beautiful and rich as Western literature. I far prefer Taha Hossein (Egypt), François Mauriac, Abou El Kassam Ech-Chabbi (Tunisia), or Pablo Neruda, Naguib Mahfouz, Malek Haddad (Algeria) etc, to European flashes in the pan.
It's a pity that you do not have access to our culture. The Arab world is not just a postcard with dunes and caravans, nor is it only terrorist attacks. The Arab world is more generous and more inspired than yours. Do you know that El Moutannabi is humanity's greatest poet since the dawn of time? … It's a pity that you do not know anything of it. I was initially inspired by mine. I have had the chance to get maximum benefit from a double culture, Western and Eastern, without ever losing sight of where I come from.
5) Where did the idea of Superintendent Llob come from? What made you decide to write about that subject?
I created Superintendent Llob as a diversion for the Algerian reader. I have already told you, in Algeria, we did not have a large selection in our bookshops there, and the publications revolved around the political demagogy, nationalist chauvinism and the romantic mediocrity praising the Algerian Revolution in Stalinist speeches. I dreamed of writing station books, books funny and without claim that you could read while waiting for the train or the bus, or while gilding yourself with the sun at the seaside. I dreamed to reconcile the Algerian reader with his literature. I had never thought that Superintendent Llob was going to exceed the borders of the country and appeal to readers in Europe, and America.
6) In your books "Wolf Dreams" and "In The Name Of God" you switched to writing from the point of view of the police to that of the terrorists. Why did you make that choice?
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
Fascinating Richard, and must have been a huge amount of work - thanks!
2 - Nasra
Thank you for this interview... Its helpful for us to know more about Arab writers who writes in other languges... it give us hope that we can also stand and present our art
3 - Barbara
I've just read The Swallows of Kabul - an exceptional book. Although I was a bit put off by Si Mohamed's dismissive generalisation about the West's ignorance, he is right that the book is not at all about terrorism. It is the truest-sounding description of the tragedy of sexist extremism for the Muslim male mind (he is not so good with the female mind, but that's fine, we have that from enough others) that I have ever read. The other Muslim male authors I know - Mahfouz and Ben Jelloun - have never dared explore this, AFAIK.
4 - Richard Marcus
The question your refer to where M. Khadra makes his comments about the Western mind came about because of misunderstanding caused by my translation of the question into French from English.
So please don't judge his opinions on the West by his answer to that question.
Richard Marcus