Kamel Daoud – The Meursault Investigation

Late Night Debut, hosted by Amber Keller

This week we feature Kamel Daoud’s debut novel, The Meursault Investigation, published by Other Press. Michiko Kakutani calls it, “[A]n intricately layered tale that not only makes us reassess Camus’s novel but also nudges us into a contemplation of Algeria’s history and current religious politics; colonialism and postcolonialism; and the ways in which language and perspective can radically alter a seemingly simple story and the social and philosophical shadows it casts backward and forward.”

Act 1: Host Amber Keller covers entertaining book news and cool new debuts

Act 2: Co-host Pauls Toutonghi and Amber Keller discuss Kamel Daoud’s debut

Act 3: Pauls Toutonghi speaks with translator John Cullen about the art of translation, his unexpected career path, and finding the right way to refer to Mother

Listen to the full episode here:

PURCHASE THE MEURSAULT INVESTIGATION HERE

GIVEAWAY: WIN A FREE COPY OF THE MEURSAULT INVESTIGATION. LISTEN TO THE EPISODE FOR DETAILS, THEN EMAIL YOUR ANSWER TO [email protected] BY MIDNIGHT ON JULY 26.

ABOUT OUR ACT 2 CO-HOST AUTHOR:

Pauls Toutonghi is the author of the novels, Evel Knieval Days and Red Weather. His writing has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, Zoetrope: All-Story, The Boston Review, Five Chapters, One Story and numerous other periodicals. The father of twins, he teaches at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

ABOUT OUR ACT 3 GUEST:

John Cullen is the translator of many books from Spanish, French, German and Italian, including Philippe Claudel’s Brodeck, Yasmina Reza’s Happy Are the Happy, Juli Zeh’s Decompression, and Chantal Thomas’s The Exchange of Princesses. He lives in upstate New York.