Habib Selmi

(1951, Tunesia) belongs to the very few Tunesian authors writing in Arabic. A conscious choice, because although fluent in French, he doens't feel at home in French literature. He could never write a French novel, he said in an interview with the literary magazine Banipal. Le-mont-des-chèvres (1999) is a short, poetic, but sometimes grim novella about a conflict between a teacher and the most important dignitary of a small Tunesian village. The teacher symbolises the intellectual and the dignitary power. Les amoureux de Bayya (2003) is his best known work. Selmi's work is characterized by austerity. ‘A novel mustn't be a tale or a myth full of characters and events,’ he said in the same interview in Banipal. Selmi has lived in Paris since 1985, where he is a university lecturer. He has published four novels and two collections of short stories. His books have been translated in English, French, Hebrew and Norwegian.