Both the detective work of Algerian Yasmina Khadra and the literary debut of French-Tunisian Karim Miské share what for some is the defining attribute of the Mediterranean crime novel and its main contribution to literature: its capacity to reflect human misery and, in this sense, to become a literature of pain.
The rise of this genre in the Mediterranean, as well as the quality of this production, is endorsed by the increasingly frequent appearance of translations of these works into Spanish, as well as by the winning of important awards. This same year Alianza Editorial has published a new edition of the The Algiers Trilogy by Yasmina Khadra, which brings together three of the novels that make up the series starring the police commissioner Brahim LLob: Morituri, Double white y The autumn of chimeras (all published by Zoela Ediciones in 2001). The part of the deadalthough written and published by the author at a later date, chronologically precedes the trilogy and came out in 2005 (Alianza Editorial). All that was missing was the first work of this pentalogy -published in French in 1990-, which Esdrújula Ediciones brought to light in Spanish in 2015 under the title of The madman with the scalpelin order to complete the saga. This week's 'Reflections' features a review of this latest work, as well as Karim Miské's literary debut, Arab jazz (Adriana Hidalgo Editora, 2014), winner of the Grand Prix de la littérature police in France 2012.
To contextualise these readings, we offer the video of the meeting 'Novela negra, radiografía de nuestro tiempo', in which two prestigious Mediterranean writers of this genre, Fatos Kongoli (Elbasan, Albania, 1944) and Lorenzo Silva (Madrid, Spain, 1966), took part.
Video: 'Novela negra, radiografía de nuestro tiempo'. Three-way conversation: Fatos Kongoli, Lorenzo Silva and Jesús Lens.
Despite their diverse geographical origins, affinities predominate in the way writers Fatos Kongoli and Lorenzo Silva understand the crime novel. Coming from different political systems - Fatos began his literary career in communist Albania, while Lorenzo Silva grew up during the last years of Franco's regime - both regimes had a similar impact on the crime novel, as repressors of freedom of expression and diversity of thought. This led to a delay in the development of this genre in their respective countries, to the point that there is not even a specific term for it in Albanian.
Prolific authors, both Kongoli and Silva do not see themselves as writers of this genre, which they approach because of their interest in describing pain and human misery, both of which are characteristic elements of the Mediterranean novel and which clearly distinguish it from the Nordic and Anglo-Saxon traditions, in which they see a "frivolisation" of crime and victims.
The collusion between organised crime and political power, the intricacies of an investigation and the restrictions placed on state officials who fight crime are, among others, some of the themes that interest these authors, for whom the human factor and people's behaviour are the central focus of their works.
Fatos Kongoli is considered by critics to be the successor of Ismail Kadaré and is the author of a dozen books. They have recently appeared in Spanish: Tirana Blues (Siruela, 2015), Damocles' dream (Siruela, 2014) and A nullity of a man (Siruela, 2013).
Lorenzo Silva is the author of numerous novels, essays and short stories and creator of a detective series starring the civil guards Bevilacqua and Chamorro, for which he has won prestigious awards, including: The far country of ponds (Critical Eye Award 1998), The impatient alchemist (Nadal Prize 2000), The meridian mark (Planeta Prize 2012).
The meeting, moderated by Jesús Lens, Director of the Granada Noir Festival, was organised by the Fundación Tres Culturas as part of the 'Tres Festival, voces del Mediterráneo', and took place on Saturday 30 April 2016 at the Centro Federico García Lorca in Granada.
Publications in Tres Culturas
The madman with the scalpel. Yasmina Khadra (Esdrújula Ediciones, 2015)
This work begins the pentalogy in which the vicissitudes of Commissioner Llob, the endearing and cantankerous character created by Yasmina Khadra as the protagonist of her detective work, are recounted. On this occasion, a sadistic killer contacts the commissioner to broadcast his crimes live. The ferocity and the frequency of the murders are putting the city of Algiers on edge. Llob deploys all his skills as a meticulous investigator to find the murderer, while all kinds of figures from Algerian society pass through the pages.
In this first instalment we already find the traits that will characterise the whole series: a sarcastic and honest Commissar Llob who at times reminds us of the most idealistic and underdog Humphrey Bogart; a fine and caustic sense of humour and a sombre vision of an Algerian society suffocated by nepotism, bureaucracy and the injustice inflicted by a political and economic elite who proclaim themselves the absolute architects of their country's independence and therefore the legitimate heirs to its wealth. "There are days when I honestly think that the thirty years of independence have done us more harm than the one hundred and thirty-two years of oppression and obscurantism".
For the reader familiar with the work, this Spanish edition fills an important gap - the original novel was published in 1990. It is also the only one in the series that takes place in the period immediately before the Algerian civil war, a catharsis that the author, a keen observer of the reality of his country, predicts in this novel: "The country is capsizing, on the verge of sinking, and the rats, aware of the imminent shipwreck, have palaces built for themselves and are taking their fabulous fortunes to safety on Christian soil".
Arab jazz. Karim Miské (Adriana Hidalgo Editora, 2014)
"The 19th arrondissement of Paris is shaken by the discovery of the body of a young stewardess in what appears to be a religiously motivated murder. As lieutenants Jean Hamelot and Rachel Kupferstein move forward with the investigation, they uncover not only an unusual intertwining of fanatical sects but a network of synthetic drug trafficking and unsuspected links to the upper echelons of the Parisian police. By foregrounding a sordid web of interests in the hands of fanatical religious minorities from different backgrounds, this fast-paced novel not only criticises the hypocrisy and manipulative methods of the sects, but also exposes a context of discrimination. On the flipside, sexual tension develops between some of the characters to counterbalance the evil forces at the heart of a dark plot. Arab jazz won in 2012 the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, one of the highest distinctions awarded in France to novels in the detective genre" (Adriana Hidalgo Editora).
All the material recommended in this section is available on the website of the Fundación Tres Culturas (www.tresculturas.org) or in our Specialised Library, which also offers the possibility of collective loans of some of the works mentioned above (for more information: http://www.tresculturas.org/club/PAUTAS.pdf). The opening hours are Monday to Friday from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm and Wednesdays from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm.
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