Amin Zaoui

Who is Amin Zaoui?

Amin Zaoui is an Algerian novelist. He was born in Bab el Assa in Tlemcen province and studied at the University of Oran, obtaining a PhD in comparative literature. He moved to France during the Algerian civil war, but returned home in 1999. He has served as the Director General of the National Library of Algeria, and currently teaches comparative literature at the Central Algerian University.

Zaoui is a bilingual writer, and has published novels in both French and Arabic. His work has been translated into a dozen languages. Zaoui's French novel Festin de Mensonges has been translated into English by Frank Wynne. In 2012, his Arabic novel The Goatherd was nominated for the Arabic Booker Prize.

He has also translated Arabic novels by Mohamed Dib and Yasmina Khadra into French.