Nearly three months after his release from an Algerian prison, French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal was on Thursday, January 29 elected to become a lifetime member of the Académie Française, the intellectual guardians of the French language.
Founded in 1635, the academy is tasked with maintaining the language’s purity and publishes an official dictionary. Its members are known as “immortals.” The 81-year-old beat five other candidates in a vote for a seat on the body replacing the late lawyer and writer Jean-Denis Bredin, the institution said.
Sansal spent almost a year imprisoned in Algeria over comments about the country but was pardoned by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on November 12.
In December, the academy awarded Sansal, a fierce critic of the Algerian government, the Cino del Duca World Prize for his work. In 2015, he won the academy’s Grand Prix du Roman for his book 2084: The End of the World, a dystopian novel inspired by George Orwell’s 1984 and set in an Islamist totalitarian world after a nuclear holocaust.
“I’m feeling a little euphoric because I’m enjoying freedom, the little things,” Sansal said on Monday. “I’m not talking about the big things. The little things. Good little meals, little things. You can’t imagine how much pleasure the little things bring.”
Sansal will be inducted at a closed ceremony when he will receive a traditional green robe embroidered with olive branches and a ceremonial sword.
