Boualem Sansal »Die Legende« (Vorpremiere)

Boualem Sansal "The Legend" (preview)
The author in conversation with Alfonso de Toro

"You don't burn books here. It's better to bury writers."

In November 2024, the Algerian-French author Boualem Sansal, who was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, was arrested upon entering Algeria - despite his advanced age and serious illness. In his new novel "The Legend", which has just been published in France, he deals with his time in prison in Algeria and the time after his release. He tells of his arrest, how after days of interrogation he was tried in five minutes, without a lawyer, and sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly endangering national unity, espionage and terrorism charges.

In fact, Sansal had only done what a writer, an intellectual must do: he had expressed his free opinion about a country and about its president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, whom the inmates of Koléa prison, where Sansal is being held, only call "Teb the Accursed". Sansal, on the other hand, the most famous inmate, they call "The Legend", he is a source of hope for them, together they write poems and speculate about a possible regime change.

After numerous international efforts, especially by the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the author was finally released in November 2025. He then wrote "The Legend" within 40 days, it is a breathless report, an angry book, it "certainly reads as an indictment of those by whom the writer feels abandoned, and does not spare any disappointed and bitter accusations. On the contrary, Boualem Sansal lashes out strongly," says Julia Encke in the FAZ.

The German translation of "Die Legende" will be published by Merlin Verlag this summer. In Leipzig, where people campaigned for Sansal's release at a very early stage and a protest resolution that originated here gained more than 27,000 signatures worldwide, the new novel by the "world author" will now be read for the first time in German.

Alfonso de Toro, a long-time friend of Sansal and an expert on his work, will host the evening and talk to the author about the book and his experiences in recent months.

Admission: 10,- / 7,- EUR ǀ Event organized by Literaturhaus Leipzig e.V., supported by Stadt- und Kreissparkasse Leipzig

Discounts are available for disabled people and their companions (only if listed on the disabled pass), unemployed people, schoolchildren and students (up to 35) as well as holders of the Leipzig Pass or an honorary pass (only on presentation of the pass).