*PROGRAM CANCELLED* The Meursault Investigation:
Reworking Camus’ “The Stranger”

Kamel Daoud In conversation with author Percival Everett
Monday, Apr 18, 2016 | 7:15pm Mark Taper Auditorium-Central Library

PLEASE NOTE: THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN CANCELLED. WE HAVE NO PLANS TO RESCHEDULE AT THIS TIME.

Topping many of last year’s best book lists and hailed by The New Yorker as “a tour-de-force,” Kamel Daoud’s debut novel, The Meursault Investigation, reimagines Camus’ 1942 classic, The Stranger. Told from the perspective of the brother of the nameless Arab killed by Camus’s antihero Meursault—a crime based on a true event that took place on an Algiers beach—Daoud layers a literary thriller with postcolonial critique. Join us for ALOUD’s first French and English bi-lingual conversation with Daoud and Percival Everett, a celebrated writer whose work also navigates questions of race and morality, as the pair discuss this timely meditation on Arab identity.

Kamel Daoud

Kamel Daoud

Kamel Daoud is an Algerian journalist based in Oran, where he writes for the Quotidien d’Oran—the third largest French-language Algerian newspaper. He contributes a weekly column to Le Point, and his articles have appeared in Libération, Le Monde, Courrier International, and are regularly reprinted around the world. A finalist for the Prix Goncourt, The Meursault Investigation won the Prix François Mauriac and the Prix des Cinq-Continents de la francophonie. A dramatic adaptation of The Meursault Investigation will be performed at the 2015 Festival d’Avignon, and a feature film is slated for release in 2017. He is a contributing editor to the New York Times Op-Ed page.

Percival Everett

Percival Everett

Percival Everett is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California and the author of nearly thirty books, including Assumption, Erasure, I Am Not Sidney Poitier, The Water Cure, Wounded, Glyph, three collections of short fiction, and one book of poetry. He is the recipient of the Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Believer Book Award, and the 2006 PEN USA Center Award for Fiction. He has fly-fished the West for over thirty years and lives in Los Angeles.

Reservation Policy for Free Programs:
As most ALOUD at Central Library programs are free of charge, it is our policy to overbook. In the case of a FULL program your free reservation may not guarantee admission. We recommend arriving early. Space permitting, unclaimed reservations will be released to standby patrons at approximately 7 PM.

 

Standby Policy:
Standby numbers are distributed in person only one hour before the program, on a first-come, first-served, basis. There is no advance wait list for full programs. Standby patrons will be admitted subject to availability. Most programs will be available via podcast.

 

Book Signing Policy:
ALOUD is one of many free programs at the Los Angeles Public Library made possible by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. Most ALOUD author programs are followed by book signings. At least one copy of the author’s book must be purchased from The Library Store in order to participate in any post-program book signing, and you will be asked to show proof of purchase. Please be prepared to show your proof of purchase when you enter the book signing line. Proceeds support the Los Angeles Public Library.

 

Main image: Nourredine Zekri

Frequently Asked Questions

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  • Where can I find podcasts and videos of ALOUD programs?

    Podcasts and videos from our programs are available free online at our growing Media Archive. Visit the archive at lfla.org/media-archive to explore hundreds of podcasts and videos spanning 20+ years of ALOUD’s history bringing authors, artists, and t thinkers to the Los Angeles Public Library.