Publisher defends prize-winning French novel after Algerian victim's claims

According to reporting by AFP, the publisher of the novel that won France's top literary prize has strongly defended its French Algerian author after an Algerian survivor of a 1990s massacre in the North African country claimed the book is based on her story used without her consent. French Algerian writer Kamel Daoud this month won the Goncourt for his novel "Houris" centered on Algeria's civil war between the government and Islamists in the 1990s. The novel, banned in Algeria, tells the story of a young woman who loses her voice when an Islamist cuts her throat as she witnesses her family being massacred during the civil war. However, the survivor of a massacre during the period has alleged on Algerian TV that the main character in the book is based on her experiences.