Novel
La Grande Maison
Not translated into English
Mohammed Dib · 1952
Synopsis
The Big House: in Tlemcen, in 1939, ten-year-old Omar lives at Dar Sbitar, an old house where several poor families are crowded together, with his mother Aïni, a widow, his two sisters and an infirm grandmother. Hunger weighs on every day, and the mother wears herself out feeding her family. At school, the teacher, Mr Hassan, gives a moral lesson on the homeland. One day, the police come for Hamid Saraj, a neighbour who is trying to organise the farm workers.
Context
The novel was published by Le Seuil in 1952 and was reprinted within the month. It opens a trilogy continued by L'Incendie, in 1954, and Le Métier à tisser, in 1957, which critics read as the account of the awakening of the Algerian people to self-awareness, on the eve of the war of independence. It received the Prix Fénéon, in 1952 or in 1953 according to the sources. The trilogy was adapted for Algerian television by Mustapha Badie, in a series broadcast in 1974.
Who it is for
A short novel in French of about two hundred pages, centred on a ten-year-old child; each volume of the trilogy can be read separately.
Prizes and reception
The volume that opens the trilogy to which its author owes his reputation; it remains available in paperback, from Points.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.