Zabor, or the Psalms

January 18, 2021
Zabor, the narrator of Algerian writer Daoud’s rich, exhilarating second novel (after The Meursault Investigation), finds salvation in writing. Zabor, Arabic for “psalm,” is the first word the narrator ever spoke, and it’s also the name he’s chosen for himself and for the book he’s writing, “the story of shipwreck... a book of a legendary and indispensable inventory,” inspired by Robinson Crusoe. As he labors on his opus, details of his backstory and situation emerge: an outcast for being something of an autodidact among the barely literate people of his village, he almost never leaves his house. After his mother died in childbirth, his father left him alone, and his aunt came to take care of him. The episodic chapters touch on various points in Zabor’s development, and they’re united by his literary passion, where sustenance and the purpose of his existence lie chiefly in the world of the word. He even comes to believe that if he stops writing about the people in his life, they will die—an illogical yet moving conceit. A Proustian undertone drives this provocative book, which will resonate with readers who share Zabor’s zeal for literature.

Starred review from May 1, 2021

After his scorching debut, The Meursault Investigations, Algerian novelist/journalist Daoud returns with something different, more lyrical and interior, yet equally ambitious. In a village touched by the hot winds of the Sahara, Zabor, as he calls himself (meaning "psalm" in Arabic), sustains the ailing by writing: "I delayed their deaths by describing, at length, the powerful eucalyptus trees and the patient nesting of storks on our minarets." Throughout, Zabor is clearly celebrating literature as he meditates on his life and world, using "a foreign language that...preserved the prestige of the former colonizers," yet which he appreciates, despite its associations, as a way of seeing anew. The narrative emerges as an affecting portrait of an outsider who defines his own meaning; book-obsessed, with his mother gone and his mocking father having abandoned him, Zabor is the village oddball--until he's begged to save his dying father's life by exercising his gift. VERDICT An original work for all book lovers.

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