So Vast the Prison

First edition in English. 8vo. Pp. 363, [1]. Grey-blue paper-covered boards, lettered in silver to spine. Jacket design by Cindy LaBreacht.

Translated from the French by Betsy Wing. Originally published by Albin Michel in 1995 as Vaste est la prison.

An account of one woman's experience in an Islamic society set against the epic history of a fractured country. Perennially talked off as a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Djebar was elected to the Académie française on 16 June 2005, the first writer from the Maghreb to achieve such recognition. In 1996, she won the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature for her contribution to world literature, while the following year, she took home the Yourcenar Prize. "Assia Djebar... has given weeping its words and longing its lyrics." –William Gass, World Literature Today