French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud on Monday won France's top literary prize, the Goncourt, for a novel set during Algeria's civil war between the government and Islamists in the 1990s. His main rival was Burundi-born Gaël Faye, who was Monday handed the prix Renaudot, another coveted prize.
The jury needed just one round of voting to award the coveted prize to Algerian writer Daoud for his novel Houris about what has become known as Algeria's "black decade".
