Michel Houellebecq, whose own best-selling novel “Submission” imagines France in 2022 under its first Muslim president, praised “2084.” (Mr. Houellebecq couldn’t compete for this year’s prize since he has already won the Goncourt.)
Mr. Sansal’s novel is set in 2084 in the fictional nation of Abistan and tells the story of a man who begins to question the underpinnings of the form of Islam that holds the country in a fierce totalitarian sway. It is a barely veiled critique of the military dictatorship in Algeria, where, since the 1980s, Islamism has been on the rise. Mr. Sansal said he had looked to Afghanistan, Algeria and Libya to create Abistan.