Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War [Paperback]

Assia Djebar, one of the most distinguished woman writers to emerge from the Arab world, wroteChildren of the New Worldfollowing her own involvement in the Algerian resistance to colonial French rule. Like the classic filmThe Battle of Algiers—enjoying renewed interest in the face of world events—Djebar’s novel sheds light on current world conflicts as it reveals a determined Arab insurgency against foreign occupation, from the inside out.

However, Djebar focuses on the experiences of women drawn into the politics of resistance. Her novel recounts the interlocking lives of women in a rural Algerian town who find themselves joined in solidarity and empower each other to engage in the fight for independence. Narrating the resistance movement from a variety of perspectives—from those of traditional wives to liberated students to political organizers—Djebar powerfully depicts the circumstances that drive oppressed communities to violence and at the same time movingly reveals the tragic costs of war.

The third novel by the Algerian writer Assia Djebar was published in France in 1962, but Marjolijn de Jager's lovely translation is its first appearance in English. . . Djebar's point of view is feminist and anti-colonial, but her novel is no propaganda piece.
—The New York Times Book Review

Djebar is an impasssioned advocate of Algerian and female liberation, and this much-admired book (previously untranslated into English). . . [Children of the New World] is a painstakingly braided tapestry that richly deserves its high reputation—as is explained in informative . . . detail in scholar Clarissa Zimra's otherwise worthy afterword. . . Reading this replete, stirring novel, one can understand why.
—Kirkus Reviews

Now translated, and beautifully so, for the first time into English,Children of the New Worldembodies Djebar's refined ll1