The German Mujahid

By Boualem Sansal

Book Overview

"The German Mujahid mesmerizes from the very first sentence and commands you not to evade or recoil." Words Without Borders

Inspired by the work of Primo Levi, The German Mujahid tells the story of the Schiller brothers, Rachel and Malrich, born in Algeria to a German father and an Algerian mother, and raised by an elderly uncle in one of the toughest ghettos in France. Rachel is a model immigrant-hard-working, upstanding, law-abiding-while Malrich is drifting, becoming increasingly alienated and angry. When Islamic fundamentalists in Algeria murder their parents, the lives of both brothers are transformed, both by the deaths of their parents and by the shocking truth that emerges afterwards. Rachel, the model son, buckles under the weight of the family revelations. Malrich, the outcast, will have to face the awful truth alone.

Based on a true story and the first Arab novel to confront the Holocaust, The German Mujahid is a groundbreaking novel and a heartfelt reflection on the harsh imperatives of history by one of Algeria's leading contemporary writers.

"Thought-provoking on many levels, perhaps the ultimate moral to this tale is the timeless one of how the sins of the father can affect the next generation." The Austin Chronicle

"A marvelous, devilishly well-constructed novel." L'Express (France)

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933372923
• ISBN13: 9781933372921
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

What do we really know?

Boualem Sansal, in his autobiographical novel, "The German Mujahid," raises a number of troubling questions with this essential question right smack in the still point: What do we really know? While other questions revolve around our heads, this one reverberates throughout our core. What do we really know? Of course, closely allied is the question: What do we really know about those we love? Malrich, the protagonist in a modified tragic sense, suffers when he learns the answer. His beloved older brother, Rachel, cannot tolerate that answer and commits suicide in a manner directly reflective of what his father did, connected with what his father was. Their father was a Nazi chemist, a key player in creating the gas that killed so many Jews and other "undesirables" in Nazi Germany. (This information comes early in the story, thus not a spoiler.) Both boys were born in Algeria to this wonderful German father and Algerian/Muslim mother and sent to Paris, one by one, to live with their aunt and uncle for their schooling. The boys are not close because of their age difference, an entire generation. When Rachel dies, Malrich collects his things and discovers a diary. Wow, what a diary! Inside is all the information--facts that Rachel discovers in his investigation of his father. Malrich feels compelled to follow his brother's studies, only to learn horror after horror. Malrich presents his findings in his own journal. Most are disturbing, to say the least, and reveal the horror of "not really knowing anything." 1. His father's sickening role in the "Solution" of the "problem" of Jews. 2. The shocking realization that many high-ranking Nazis totally escaped punishment for their war crimes and led "normal" lives in newly invented personas for themselves. 3. What does a reader really know? I always assumed, if I even thought about it, that all Germans supported Hitler's Solution. Not so. At the death camps, pleasant situations were created for the thousands of workers who kept things running efficiently--all to prevent any desertions. 4.In the subplot, Malrich frequently compares the Islamic fundamentalist clergy and rabid followers to Nazism and Nazis. He experiences extremists in the suburbs of Paris where he grew up--an Islamic inner city-like neighborhood referred to as the "estate." A positive from the novel is that Malrich determines to oppose this extremism one person at a time, so that history does not repeat itself. I've attempted to infuse my review with enough detail to show the quality and depth of Sansal's novel, a must-read experience. A line on the cover says: "The first Arab novel to confront the Holocaust," a line I did not grasp until I read the book. The centuries-old deadly conflict between Arabs and Jews assumes a new dimension, especially because its author is Islamic (a bare believer) and half-Arab. German Mujahid? "Mujahideen" refers to those groups who struggle to assert Islamic law; a "mujahid" is one who struggles for

As modern as today's headlines and layered with meanings far beyond the storyline.

This 228-page novel tells the story of two Algerian brothers living in France who discover that their father was a Nazi. The book is in the form of diaries of the two brothers and explores the contrast between the holocaust and modern Islamic fundamentalism. Published in French in 2008 and recently translated into English the author has a unique voice that is a modern as today's headlines and layered with meanings far beyond the seemingly simple storyline. Once I picked it up, I literally could not put it down. The older brother gives up his good job in a multi-national corporation to explore his father's life. He travels back to his own birthplace in Algeria and then visits all the places of horror connected with the extermination camps as well as Egypt and Turkey where his father found sanctuary after the Nazi war criminals were being hunted down. Later, the younger brother goes on a quest of his own and also travels to Algeria. But most of his story is rooted in the Muslim ghetto in France, which is being taken over by more and more dogmatic religious fanatics. The author does not spare the reader the detailed descriptions of the cruelties of the past and the horrible potential for the future. But it ends with a small spark of hope and it is clear why he wrote this book. As I was reading the book I thought it had the voice of a young man. However, when I looked up the author I discovered he was born in Algeria in 1949 and began writing novels at age 50 after retiring from his job as a high ranking official in Algerian government. He lives in Algeria with his wife and children and his writing is internationally acclaimed although his books are banned in his own country. Hopefully, he will continue this kind of writing which clearly can make a difference in the world. I give this book one of my highest recommendations even though it will be much too brutal for some.

Gripping, heartfelt and bitter human experience.

Whoa, spell bounding and impossible to leave unread. The novel gets you on the first page. There is no turning back. A powerful memoir of two brothers' story of what happened to each of them once they learnt of their father's past. The story was narrated through their personal diaries: cleverly put together by the author who takes you on a journey of emotions and discoveries, both past and present. Unspeakable emotions were carefully detailed on how each of the brothers dealt with their father's past. Their observations of the world were intensely categorized that you could feel and smell the world they were in. Each brother handled the information differently, but the rawness of their emotions was so well expressed: gripping, harrowing and bitter. You really felt you were in these personas for the duration of the narrative. The author's ability to take you though the journey was seamlessly smooth with the impeccable research and attention to details was spell-binding. In such a small book: the punch was huge. I believe we all through our own tragedies and bad news, this novel taught me that there are more than one way to handle the initial emotion reaction: inwardly or outwardly. Which ever road you took, there will always be an impact to the people around you. The human side of the story was immense and well overrides the generalization of the muslin-jew divide. Bravo. Thank goodness an english translation was made on this amazingly written novel.

Beautiful and haunting

Boualem Sansal's second novel centers on two immigrant brothers, Malrich and Rachel, living in Paris. They have emigrated from Algeria, in a village where their Algerian mother and German father still reside. The novel is narrated by both Malrich and Rachel, via their journals. Malrich discovers his older brother's diary after his death; as he reads it, he learns of the terrible family secret that led to his brother's demise. Their father was an SS officer in Nazi Germany. Through the journals of the brothers, the novel depicts how each deals with the vicarious shame and horror of what their father has done. Rachel's voice is pained and poignant; heart-wrenching to read and impossible to turn away from. Malrich's adolescent voice is equally poignant but also tinged with a cynical, sardonic humor somewhat reminiscent of, but to me, much more likeable than, that of Holden Caufield in "Catcher in the Rye." The writing style is just gorgeous; it gathers momentum and pulls the reader right into the story and emotions of the characters. The story delves deeply into the atrocities of the Holocaust and themes of responsibility and restitution. Simultaneously, it explores the similarities between Naziism and Islamic fundamentalism, and makes a compelling argument that the ideas behind and the ultimate outcome of the two are very closely related. Malrich, living in a "sink estate" or ghetto in Paris, finds his estate taken over by fundamentalists and fears that, just as with the Holocaust, no one will take action until it's too late. This is a beautifully written novel that is often painful to read, but in a necessary way. It provides no easy answers, but raises important and timely questions. Very highly recommended.

"While Europe Slept"

Move over Bruce Bawer, you've got a novel companion to your eye-opening expose "While Europe Slept" (Broadway Books, 2006). Algierian author Boualem Sansal's 2008 novel "Le Village de L'Allemand ou Le Journal de Freres Schiller" has been translated into English and newly released as "The German Mujahid." The infiltration of European cities by militant Islamists, as chronicled in meticulous detail by Bawer, is now semi-fictionalized (the jacket tells us this story is based on a true one) and, therefore, becomes more immediately recognizable as a here-and-now threat to France, Western Europe, and the world. Sansal, however, goes beyond the present--1996 that is--and sends Rachel Schiller, the 33 year old son of a Nazi war criminal, on a trek through Europe and North Africa as told through entries in his diary. Rachel is in search of an explanation for his father's horrific deeds and is desperate to reconcile this monster to the man he knew as a loving father and an Algerian freedom fighter. Rachel's teenage brother Malrich reads the diary and retraces his brother's journey, in search of his own peace of mind and also a need to escape the oppressive infiltration of his Parisian neighborhood by militant jihadists. Two brothers, both in agony, move through two continents, one attempting to atone for the sins of his father, the other coming to grips with both the realities of the Holocaust and the increasingly violent stranglehold of Islamists working to build an Islamic nation in the suburbs of Paris. Bawer notes that these discontented occupants of Parisian housing projects, veritable ghettos of North African immigrants, are "a looming challenge to twenty-first century European prosperity, stability, and democracy." Sansal, who's clearly knows his way around the 'hood, says, through Malrich, that "the estate has become unrecognisable. What was a Sensitive Urban Area, Category 1 has become a concentration camp." And in exploring the thin border between Nazism and Islamism, has placed himself, we may assume, in a rather precarious position in his native Algiers. Malrich is consoled by his friend who advises him "It is mektoub, Malek, it is fate, we must accept it." Malrich answers "It's not mektoub, Mimed. It's us, we're the problem." Depressing? Oh yeah, most definitely. But Rachel reminds us that at every moment of our life, we have a choice. And Santayana, of course, told us "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This is a must-read book. And pick up "While Europe Slept" while you're ordering.