Ali Zamir — Anguille sous roche (2016)

Anguille sous roche (2016)

Anguille sous roche is the first novel by Ali Zamir, published in September 2016 by éditions Le Tripode. The story follows Anguille, a seventeen-year-old teenager who recounts her life from a kwasa-kwasa sinking between Anjouan and Mayotte. The novel, written in a single sentence spanning 318 pages, is a formal feat that blends stream of consciousness with oral tradition.

Translated into English by Aneesa Abbas Higgins (A Girl Called Eel, Jacaranda Books, 2019), into German by Thomas Brovot (Die Schiffbrüchige, Unionsverlag, 2016), it won the Prix Senghor and a special mention of the Prix Wepler in 2016, as well as the Mandela Prize for Literature and the Dax Prix des Rencontres à Lire in 2017. Emmanuel Macron praised it « sous la coupole de l’Académie française » in March 2018.

Sources and references

1. « Anguille sous roche », Open Library
2. « Ali Zamir », Wikipédia en français, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Zamir
3. « A Girl Called Eel », Jacaranda Books