Die jüngste Tochter
Fatima Daas | Sina de Malafosse
Internationaler Literaturpreis 2021
Jury’s comment
Every word of this autobiographical debut novel testifies to the dauntlessness and vulnerable honesty of the narrator, who grows up as the daughter of Algerian immigrants in Clichy-sous-Bois and attempts to honor the passionate simultaneity of coming out twice. The novel depicts the search for an identity in which a young woman can come closer to Islam and break free from sexual role ascriptions without having to defend one against the other. It is also a coming-of-age story that negotiates the tension between the Christian white majority society in Paris and the migrant minorities in the suburbs. All of this is told in a precisely poetic and incredibly contemporary way, drawing on traditions of Arabic literatures with great naturalness and range (Qur’an, poetry, rap). It’s as if a life in which identities can equally coexist had long existed. With Die jüngste Tochter (The Last One), Fatima Daas has charged on ahead of this life.
– Annika Reich, jury
Author: Fatima Daas
Fatima Daas studied creative writing at the University of Paris VIII. Her first novel, La petite dernière (The Last One), received the 2020 Prix Les Inrockuptibles for best debut novel and has been translated into several languages.
Translator: Sina de Malafosse
Sina de Malafosse studied Romance languages and comparative literature in Mainz and Dijon. After various stints in publishing, she has been translating from French since 2015, including works by Adeline Dieudonné, Pauline Delabroy-Allard and Violette Leduc. She lives in Toulouse.