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Karim Miské

かりむ・みすけ

Karimu Misuke

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1964 （Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire）
Nationality
French, Mauritanian
Languages
French

Career

Occupations
documentary filmmaker, writer
Active Years
1988-2024

Awards

Grand Prix de Littérature Policière
2015
Work: Arab Jazz
Result: winner
Prix du Goéland Masqué
2015
Work: Arab Jazz
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Arab Jazz

2015 crime fiction

The novel's main character, Ahmed Taroudant, lives in the north-east of Paris in the 19th arrondissement, and is a typical French Arab–religiously non-observant, confused about his identity, haunted by the past. An avid reader of crime fiction and a neurotic, he finds himself taking the blame for a murder: his upstairs neighbor Laura, who was in love with him though he never noticed it, is murdered, and her blood drips down his balcony. Two investigators (also readers of crime fiction) are already on the case, and Taroudant himself also tries to uncover what happened.

identity confusionimmigrant experiencecrimeinner darkness
Translations
  • English by Sam Gordon

Style & Themes

Literary Style
full of references to other works of fiction
Recurring Motifs
damaged by heritagegrand narrative

Legacy

Mauritanian-French documentary filmmaker and writer whose debut novel Arab Jazz won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.

Quotes

  • When I heard about the attack on Charlie Hebdo, I was deeply disturbed like most people....Then I heard how the killers crashed their car at Place du Colonel Fabien and that they had hijacked another car and driven down the Rue Petit--all places which appear in Arab Jazz--I thought what is happening? Why have these people invaded my book?
    Source: The Independent (2015)

Trivia

  • First documentary film Économie de la débrouille à Nouakchott in 1988.
  • Father was a Mauritanian diplomat, mother French.