Yasmine Khadra is a man of many facets. Alternately second lieutenant then commander of the Algerian army for 25 years, he has also been a writer since he was 18 years old. Collections and novels were born from this passion, as well as an incorruptible hero in an Algiers devoured by fanaticism and power struggles, Commissioner Brahim Llob. This virtual man will allow him to obtain an international reputation with several million conquered readers. It is translated into almost 50 languages, so much so that it entered the dictionary in 2013.
On August 24, Yasmina Khadra published his new novel, The Virtuouspublished by Mialet-Barrault.
franceinfo: Your novel is a fresco in Algeria between the wars. We are in 1914. We discover a family that has only one thing, ultimately, it is the love of the people who live within this home. It’s also a bit of a look at the extent to which you don’t necessarily control your destiny.
Yasmine Khadra : Destiny is something that escapes us, it builds us somewhere, but destiny doesn’t tell us everything. Fate, precisely, is the whole philosophy of life.
Fate offers us things, sometimes traps, sometimes salutary ways and leaves us to manage.
Yasmina Khadraat franceinfo
Why this title, The Virtuous ?
Because, quite simply, I wanted to offer my readership, which has never abandoned me, the best I could give. This is my best text.
It’s cinematic limit, that is to say that we have the impression of being there. It is also the whole palette of feelings. Is it difficult to write feelings?
For someone who loves, no. When we are in detestation, we therefore betray ourselves, we write our detestation very badly. But love is exceptionally fluid. And me, I like the characters, whether they are bad or good, tyrannical or victims. If I don’t love them, I can’t access the scent of them.
I learned to love the world as it is. This is how I live my life to the fullest.
Yasmina Khadraat franceinfo
There is Yacine, who represents this family, this union with this father who had his hand amputated during a duel that begs but does not say so. There is enormous modesty in this writing. Is it part of you?
I’m afraid. I’m so scared of the reader that I’m trying to earn it! There is a certain modesty. I have always been a bit shy, even if the attacks that have gravitated around me have forced me to react. But deep down, I’m a bit Yacine.
This book is dedicated to your mom. You say : “To my mother who could neither read nor write and who inspired me to write this book“.
She is no longer there, yes. His absence was a very strong source of inspiration. Everything I imagined was through his gaze. She is an illiterate woman, but who was a poet. It was she who introduced me to the beauty of the verb. It’s true that she didn’t write, but she knew how to say things as they are, as they see them, therefore with a look that is quite singular because it is true.
The father occupies a very important place in this work.
Maybe he didn’t figure prominently in my life. I always wondered why the father is always sad to watch. Maybe I missed my dad a lot.
He was an officer in the National Liberation Army, which was the armed wing of the National Liberation Front at war from 1954 to 1962. You were sent to the army very quickly.
I was nine years old.
Did you take the time to grow up?
I grew old without growing. My father had so much love for me. I was always close to his grief and the only way for him to be able to truly change his life was to take me somewhere else, far away from his eyes and his gaze. And he put me in this school to be able to build his own dream.
You served the Algerian army for 25 years. What does Algeria represent for you?
We do not understand why he does not manage to awaken to his potentialities, to his wealth, to his happiness. He may not be worthy of all the sacrifices, but we love him. It is madness. Maybe that’s what helps us all the same to move forward in life.
You decided, very quickly, to assert your rights to retirement.
I was made to write. I couldn’t disappoint my parents. With us, parents are sacred. When they decided, for me, a military career, I said: OK. I gave 25 years of my life to his parents. Now I live for me, but I couldn’t do it without going through writing.
You have decided to call yourself Yasmina Khadra. It was a way for you to thank your wife. It’s also a great way to salute the progress of women. You have written a book in which you tell the story of two Afghan couples under the Taliban regime. We are there. What do you think of that?
I’m saddened because we’ve come back to square one and it’s terrible. I am thinking above all of these young girls who have learned to be modern, to sing, to dream, to work as journalists. 20 years of hope and everything has crumbled to dust. And it’s terrifying.
How can people be forbidden to live their lives?
Yasmina Khadraat franceinfo
Are you proud of the journey you have already made?
I am especially proud of the man that I am, sincerely. I would like to leave this world without having raged and without having harmed someone. This is even the philosophy of this book. This book healed me of myself. It’s weird, but when I finished this book, I felt like I had healed a monstrous tumor inside me.
Happy today?
I will wait for the reaction of my readership first!