The writer Boualem Sansal at Editions Gallimard in Paris on November 24, 2025. LUDOVIC CARÈME/AGENCE VU FOR LE MONDE
Despite his release from prison in Algeria on November 12 and return to France on November 18, Boualem Sansal said that he was not entirely free to speak his mind. Every word had to be weighed carefully, so as not to pour oil on the fire of French-Algerian relations, he explained. Yet, listening to him answer questions from Le Monde in an office at the Gallimard publishing house in Paris, it was clear that, in reality, the writer is incapable of adhering to such self-censorship. Sansal remained true to himself, always showing the same gentle tenacity, the same defiant smile, the same dangerous spontaneity. Some might call that reckless. Others would say that when a writer holds his tongue, he is no longer truly a writer.
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Writers express joy and lingering anger after Boualem Sansal's pardon
In your book Poste restante : Alger ("General Delivery: Algiers," 2006), in which you discuss the "blockade of thought" stifling Algerian society, you write: "To be in prison, alright, but to have a mind free to wander." In recent months, did you have that freedom?
