A Waltz
Lynda Chouiten. Translated by Skyler Artes. Afterword by Mildred Mortimer
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A prize-winning novel from one of Algeria’s rising literary stars
In A Waltz, Lynda Chouiten depicts an irreverent and creative woman with an artistic temperament navigating the stiflingly conservative society in which she was raised. The narrative follows the path of Chahira, a seamstress from El Moudja—a fictional small coastal town in the Kabyle region of Algeria—to an international design competition in Vienna. Along the way, A Waltz expresses the strain of competing value systems, regional identities and expectations, and a cacophony of voices bearing down upon one woman while asking challenging questions about the nature of madness, confinement, and resistance to a patriarchal world.
- World Literature TodayThis English translation of the 2019 Assia Djebar Prize–winning novel serves as a well-deserved recognition of Chouiten’s highly promising literary journey. With A Waltz, she affirms her status as an important voice in Algerian literature, delivering a novel that is both deeply personal and politically resonant, seamlessly blending poetic prose with trenchant social critique.
An important new voice in Algerian literature. . . Une Valse, published in 2019, the year that saw Algeria’s hirak – the massive demonstrations throughout the country that led to the fall of president Abdelaziz Boutiflika – captures the mood of the times. Algerians whose dreams of wider horizons and a freer society had been shattered have now opted for change, cautiously optimistic as they embrace their uncertain future.- Journal of North African Studies
A sparkling, haunting novel revealing the violence and liberating power of female madness in the face of patriarchal constraint. Across a stylistic spectrum ranging from hallucinatory monologue to incisive social satire, Chouiten crafts an unforgettable paean to the invincibility of Chahira’s spirit—and her indomitable creativity.- Edwige Tamalet Talbayev, Tulane University
Lynda Chouiten is an Algerian writer and academic and the winner of the 2019 Grand Prix Assia Djebar. Skyler Artes is the translator of Arabic as a Secret Song by Leïla Sebbar and I Die by This Country by Fawzia Zouari.
