[Interview] ArabLit interviews novelist Habib al-Sayah

 

Arabic Literature (in English) spoke with Habib Sayah about his latest novel roman, 'ana wa haim', among 15 novels in Arabic longlisted for the IPAF 2019.

Cracking ‘the Shell of the Taboo Around Talking about Algerian Jews’ 

What made you decide to build Me and Haim around Muslims and Jews who live together under French colonial Occupation?

Habib al-Sayah: It was my hope that, by exploring the relationship between Algerians, one Muslim and the other Jewish, I would crack the shell of the taboo around talking about Algerian Jews, who have lived in the country for more than twenty centuries, a population joined by those immigrants who fled the Spanish Inquisition. For them, Algeria was a land of peace and safety.
My decision to write about that relationship was based in my conviction that Algerian Jews were an integral part of social, historical, and cultural elements; they spoke the same languages (Algerian, in Arabic or Amazigh dialects). They wore the same traditional clothing. They prepared the same foods. And they shared what was made. They played the same music. They sang the same songs. Only the two religions were different.

read the whole interview here