A Waltz - (Caraf Books) by Lynda Chouiten

About the Book

"A novel centering on a rural Algerian seamstress of Kabylian descent whose refusal as a teenager in the 1990s to wear a veil places her in danger, leading to a form of psychosis in her struggle to preserve her identity against such pressures. This novel captures the strain placed by competing value systems, regional identities, and expectations"--

Book Synopsis

A prize-winning novel from one of Algeria's rising literary stars. In A Waltz, Lynda Chouiten depicts an irreverent and creative woman with an artistic temperament navigating the stiflingly conservative society in which she was raised. The narrative follows the path of Chahira, a seamstress from El Moudja--a fictional small coastal town in the Kabyle region of Algeria--to an international design competition in Vienna. Along the way, A Waltz expresses the strain of competing value systems, regional identities and expectations, and a cacophony of voices bearing down upon one woman while asking challenging questions about the nature of madness, confinement, and resistance to a patriarchal world.

Review Quotes

An important new voice in Algerian literature. . . Une Valse, published in 2019, the year that saw Algeria's hirak - the massive demonstrations throughout the country that led to the fall of president Abdelaziz Boutiflika - captures the mood of the times. Algerians whose dreams of wider horizons and a freer society had been shattered have now opted for change, cautiously optimistic as they embrace their uncertain future.-- "Journal of North African Studies"

About the Author

Lynda Chouiten is an Algerian writer and academic and the winner of the 2019 Grand Prix Assia Djebar. Skyler Artes is the translator of Arabic as a Secret Song by Leïla Sebbar and I Die by This Country by Fawzia Zouari.