Franco-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, currently imprisoned in Algeria, has been named the 56th recipient of the prestigious Prix mondial Cino Del Duca 2025.
The Institut de France announced on Wednesday that the €200,000 award recognizes a message of modern humanism conveyed through his work.
The jury, chaired by Amin Maalouf, Permanent Secretary of the Académie Française, lauded Sansal for “the strength of a writer who, beyond borders and censorship, continues to give voice to a free, deeply humanist, and resolutely necessary voice.”
Sansal, 76, was arrested in November 2024 at Algiers airport upon his return from Paris and was subsequently sentenced on March 25 to five years in prison for “undermining national unity” after making statements about the borders between Algeria and Morocco.
Trained as an engineer with a doctorate in economics, Sansal began his literary career at the age of 50. His 1999 debut, The Oath of the Barbarians, chronicled the growing influence of fundamentalists in an Algerian society grappling with violence, fear, and corruption. Published by Gallimard in Paris, the novel was well-received in France. In Algeria, where French-language literature faces increasing constraints, Sansal remains less known to the broader public. His work, often censored in his home country, frequently critiques totalitarian and religious excesses. His dystopian novel 2084: The End of the World received the Grand Prix du roman from the Académie française in 2015. Other works, such as Le Village de l’Allemand (2008) and Rue Darwin (2011), were censored in Algeria due to parallels drawn between Islamism and Nazism.
The Prix mondial Cino Del Duca, established in 1969, is considered one of the most significant international literary awards after the Nobel Prize. It will be formally presented to Sansal on June 18 under the Dome of the Institut de France. Last year, the award was bestowed upon writer Yasmina Reza.
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