Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War (Women Writing the Middle East)

Children of the New World is a novel of insurgency and resistance by one of the Arab world’s most distinguished woman writers. Centering women in political resistance, Children of the New World follows a robust cast of women in a rural Algerian town who find themselves joined in solidarity as they empower one another to engage in the fight for independence.

Narrating the resistance movement across a variety of perspectives—from traditional wives to liberated students to political organizers—Djebar powerfully depicts the circumstances that drive oppressed communities to violence while she movingly reveals the tragic costs of war. Children of the New World was written following the author’s own involvement in the Algerian resistance to colonial French rule, making it both intensely personal and deeply resonant.

First published in 1962, this timeless novel “embodies Djebar's refined literary sensibility, empathy for people caught in times of violent change, and penetrating insights into the complex and painful difficulties between men and women” (Booklist).