“Lounge singer Zakia Zaghouani is murdered in a politically unstable Algerian city in the late 1980s in this intricate mystery from Khatibi (Sarajevo Firewood). When a shepherd discovers Zakia’s body in a meadow, it sparks a police investigation led by Inspector Hamid, whose home life is marred by his crumbling marriage and strained relationships with extended family. Hamid quickly identifies Zakia’s troubled lover, Bachir Labtam, as the primary suspect, prompting Bachir’s cousin, lawyer Noura Arkoub, to launch an effort to clear his name. Other characters—including Ibrahim Derras, a down-on-his-luck video store owner and friend of Bachir’s, and Maimoun Belassal, operator of the Sahara Hotel, where Zakia worked—soon get roped into the investigation, sharing narration duties as the truth behind Zakia’s death comes to light. Meanwhile, political tensions simmer in the background, culminating with a fictionalisation of the violent 1988 “Black October” protests against Algeria’s ruling party. While the pace occasionally bogs down under the weight of the sprawling cast, elegant prose and a keen sense of place help bring the narrative to life. It’s a solid whodunit that doubles as a captivating look at a country in transition. “ Publishers Weekly
KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW In the fall of 1988, shortly before the outbreak of mass youth riots in Algeria over unemployment and a lack of basic goods, a town’s collective anger over the murder of a nightclub singer reflects what’s to come.
The body of Zakia Zaghouani, the Sahara Hotel’s popular, alluring attraction, is found at a time when shortages of food and water and the scarcity of coffee and baby formula have made life intolerable for many. “Sometimes, entire families clamorously reached out their hands to people who might give them something. This city has become the capital of beggars.” The murder investigation is in the hands of an incompetent inspector who is all too happy to have the independent Zaza’s former (and possibly reunited) lover thrown in prison based on no real evidence. Teeming with resentments and jealousies involving Zaza, the novel is narrated by the interconnected and sometimes related characters in rotation. The owner of the hotel, Zaza’s boss, wanted to marry her. The young female singer who took her place may have wanted that badly enough to kill her. Says the shifty Ibrahim, who deals drugs and porn from his video shop, “‘She probably left her lover, so he killed her.’ (I, too, had almost strangled a previous girlfriend).” Though suspects abound, the novel’s aura of mystery is created less by Zaza’s killing than by the painful aftereffects of Algeria’s war for independence (the ghosts of the disappeared float about) and the withholding of secrets revealed by the October protests. Marked by dark humor and darker truths, this novel illuminates a lightly documented chapter of Algeria’s past. An absorbing novel that should broaden Khatibi’s following.----Kirkus STARRED REVIEW
The End of the Sahara is the second novel on this list to take place in Algeria during the tumultuous late 1980s. In Khatibi’s moody masterpiece, a nightclub singer has been found murdered, perplexing a wide range of lovers, friends, enemies, and others drawn into her magnetic orbit, and in possession of her deadly secrets. Evocative, brooding, and perfectly hard-boiled!--- CrimeReads
