Reviewed by Dennis Bianchi
In 1942 Albert Camus published The Stranger, a novel that quickly gained notoriety. The book was not translated into English until 1946 when it gained an even larger group of readers. Camus used this novel to explain an existential view of life. An unidentified man is shot and killed while taking the sun on a beach. The murderer is a young Algerian named Meursault. The book opens with the death announcement of Meursault’s mother, but it is not clear what prompted Meursault to murder an unnamed Arab, a man he had never met. Over the years The Stranger has become a fixture on reading lists for college students of literature or philosophy. As I reached my late sixties I realized that I had never read it, although I had owned it for some time. It is a very short book; approximately 123 pages and I recommend that you read it before you read The Meursault Investigation. I suppose The Meursault Investigation could be read and, to some degree, understood if read without reading The Stranger, but it would be incomplete.
Throughout The Stranger the victim is identified only as the Arab. As the book progresses the Arab becomes less and less a human being. Meursault’s trial is absurd and he never tries to mount a defense. But the new book poses a response and the identity of the victim.
The story is told by the victim’s brother, Harun (Aaron), who finally gives us the name of the victim: Musa (Moses). The majority of the tale is told inside a bar in Oran, Algeria. Harun gives his brother a life, a family and gives the reader a perspective of the life of an Arab who has seen his culture change as a result of colonization. Harun makes it clear that being a Muslim is not that important to him. (As a matter of fact, in the real world an insignificant Islamist preacher has called for the author Daoud to be executed. Daoud has been unmoved by the threat). Importance, instead lies in Harun’s desire to reclaim Musa’s humanity. But Harun succumbs to violence as well, and kills a French citizen. He is taken into custody and interrogated by Algerian soldiers. Algeria had secured its autonomy days before the murder and this creates another question: If Harun had killed his victim only a few days earlier, would he have been considered a national hero?
The book is a short read: 160 pages in paperback. Mr. Daoud has been a journalist based in Oran and this is his first novel. Not only has it won awards, a feature film has been scheduled for release in 2017. It was a New York Times bestseller and was considered a Most Notable Book of 2015 by The New York Times and The Financial Times listed it among the Best Books of 2015, among other English language awards.
