Original Work
El Aswad Yalikou Biki (Black Suits You so Well)
Her long-awaited new novel, "Black Suits You so Well", published in November 2012 by Hachette-Antoine, has sold over 200,000 copies in two months.
Nessyane.com (The Art of Forgetting)
"The Art of Forgetting" is an elegant and warm-hearted meditation on love, damage, survival and restoration from an exhilarating stylist. As the title suggests, this book offers women advice on how to move beyond the destructive men in their lives and onto a better and more fulfilling existence. Full of wit and warmth, from an author who speaks from her heart and head at one and the same time.
Zakirat el Jassad (Memory in the Flesh/The Bridges of Constantine)
"The Bridges of Constantine" is the first novel written by an Algerian woman in Arabic that has become a bestseller. It was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 1998 in recognition of its distinction. Ahlam Mosteghanemi is able to represent more than four decades of Algerian history as they interweave with the characters' trajectories and memories, from the revolt of 1945 in East Algeria to 1988 when, Khaled, the protagonist-narrator is writing a memoir of his in the form of the novel we read.
"Memory in the Flesh" is dedicated to both the author's militant father, who was engaged in the national liberation struggle, and to her literary father, the Francophone Algerian poet and novelist, Malek Haddad (1927-78), who decided after the independence of Algeria in 1962 not to write in a foreign language any more, and he ended up not writing at all. Haddad's verbal traces in "Memory in the Flesh", whether in allusions or intertextual references, attest to the literary kinship between the two writers. The issue of filiation and affiliation is a prominent motif in this novel.
Fawda el Hawas (Chaos Of The Senses)
Ahlam Mosteghanemi's second novel of her trilogy, "Chaos of the Senses", picks up where Memory in the Flesh left off, with the story of love set in the battered and bruised Algeria of the 1990s. Mosteghanemi takes her readers through the streets of suspicion and suspense, and the ups and downs of a forbidden love affair, through a story within a story, as a writer stuck in a loveless marriage to an important military man inadvertently writes what eventually comes true.
"Chaos of the Senses" was Published by Dar Al-Adab in Beirut 1997, 30 printed editions.
Aber Sareer (Bed Hopper)
"Bed Hopper" - Published by Ahlem Mosteghanemi in Beirut 2003, 22 printed editions, is the third book of her triogy.
Translated Work
English translations
Available at the editor's website:
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/search?q=ahlem+mosteghanemi&Gid=1
The Times review on the Bridges of Constantine
This Algerian author is the most successful woman writer in the Arab world. This novel, first published in 1993, won the prestigious Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, for novels that are written in Arabic and not yet available in English. It has since sold handsomely across the world. She’s telling the tumultuous story of Algeria over the past fifty years, but framed by a very powerful love story. Khaled is a famous painter, lately returned to his home city after long exile in Paris. A magazine picture of a beautiful lady novelist jolts him into writing down his feelings for his country and the woman Hayat — his twin obsessions. He first heard Hayat’s name when she was a baby; Khaled was fighting in the revolution and her father was his commanding officer. Years later, she turns up at one of his exhibitions, and she has grown into a brilliant and self-willed young writer. No emotion is small here; the writing is lush and stately.
The Bridges of Constantine on Bloomsbury’s Pinterest page:
http://www.pinterest.com/bloomsburybooks/the-bridges-of-constantine/
Chaos of the Sens
The second volume of the trilogy was published in January 2015 by
Bloomsbury Publishing.
The Dust of Promises
The third volume of the trilogy was published in January 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
From Banipal's Book Reviews
The Art of Forgetting mingles the profound with the frivolous. There are chapters on spirituality and prayer: “don’t place your confidence in a man who has turned away from God after being seduced by worldly matters.” On a more indulgent level there is a chapter on “chocolate is your weapon”. The book is itself rather like a box of assorted chocolates to be dipped into; some of its chapters are soft and sweet, others are dark and mysterious, crunchy with a bite, or unexpected like a salted caramel.
French Translations
Zakirat el jassad in it's french edition (Mémoires de la chair)
Published in 2002 by Albin Michel.
Fawda el hawas in it's french edition (Le Chaos des Sens)
Published in 2006 by Albin Michel.