The author has been awarded the prize for his first novel, "Je me souviens de Falloujah", published by JC Lattès. The jury praised "a moving novel about amnesia and the rediscovery of memory between France and Iraq, about the complex yet tender relationship between a father and his son, about exile and the memories of a country torn apart... with great finesse, tenderness, intelligence and humour".
Feurat Alani, who has already won this year's Senghor Prize and the Version Femina novel prize for his novel, succeeds Tunisian writer Yamen Manai, winner of the Arab Literature Prize in 2022 for his novel Bel Abîme.
At the same time, the Arab Literature Prize for High School Students was awarded to Abdelkrim Saifi for his novel "Si j'avais un franc". Created this year, the €4,000 prize for Arabic literature by secondary school students is awarded by nearly 120 students from general, technological and vocational secondary schools in the Académie de Versailles, who read and voted for their favourite book from the final selection.
The Arab Literature Prize was created in 2013 by the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation and the Arab World Institute, and is endowed with €10,000.