Mauritanian Novelist Wins First Prize at Dakar International Festival of Literature

Mauritanian novelist Mbarek Ould Beirouk won first prize at the Dakar International Literature Festival last Saturday for his novel “Sarah”, by jury consensus.

Sarah, published by a French publishing house last year, is Ould Beirouk’s latest production, preceded by seven novels, four of which won international awards while one won a local award.

The Dakar International Literature Festival witnessed a wide participation of international poets and writers to compete for the two prizes awarded by the Festival since its opening two years ago in the field of novel and poetry, in addition to an award dedicated to Senegalese writers.

The novel “Sarah”, which is more than 200 pages, was characterized by a beautiful narrative style in a tangled story of the novel’s characters, who were united by strangeness and chance and separated by the fluctuation of time and its spending…

In a prosperous and sober language that combined the beauty and fluidity of style, as is the custom of its author in the novels and short stories he wrote.