Boualem Sansal

Boualem Sansal, born in 1949, is an engineer and economist and was Director of the Algerian Ministry of Industry until his dismissal in the spring of 2003. In France, where Sansal has been hailed as a linguistic innovator for his novels and has received numerous awards (including the Prix du Premier Roman, the Prix Louis-Guilloux, the Grand Prix RTL-Lire and the Grand Prix du Roman de l’Académie française), he is regarded as one of the most significant contemporary writers. In his works, he does not hold back in his criticism of the political situation in his native Algeria, which he nevertheless did not leave until the end of 2025. “You cannot level fierce criticism from abroad,” he said in an interview with Reiner Wandler (taz), attempting to explain his decision to remain in his Algerian homeland. In 2011, Boualem Sansal was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade at Frankfurt’s Paulskirche. In his self-image as an author, Boualem Sansal follows in the tradition of the critical intellectual. As a writer, he takes a stand and speaks out, even when doing so puts him in great danger. On 16 November 2024, he was arrested at Algiers airport upon entering his home country and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in March 2025. After the German Federal President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, asked the Algerian President, Abdelmajid Tebboune, on 10 November to grant a pardon to the German Peace Prize laureate, Boualem Sansal was pardoned by the Algerian President on 12 November 2025 and flown to Germany. In October 2025, Boualem Sansal was elected to the Académie royale de langue et de littérature française de Belgique. Boualem Sansal has been a member of the Académie française since 29 January 2026.

Der Schwur der Barbaren
Gifkendorf, 2003
(Translation: Regina Keil-Sagawe)

Erzähl mir vom Paradies
Gifkendorf, 2004
(Translation: Regina Keil-Sagawe)

Postlagernd: Algier
Gifkendorf, 2008
(Translation: Ulrich Zieger, Daniel Eckert, Rainer Haubrich, Reiner Wandler)

Das Dorf des Deutschen
Gifkendorf, 2009
(Translation: Ulrich Zieger)

Allahs Narren
Gifkendorf, 2013
(Translation: Regina Keil-Sagawe)

2084. Das Ende der Welt
Gifkendorf, 2016
(Translation: Vincent von Wroblewsky)