Aziz Chouaki was born in 1951, grew up in Algeria with his mother, and learned to play the guitar to the music of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix, music later forbidden by the regime. For political reasons, he has lived in France since 1991, where he has published many novels and plays, two of which were performed at the Avignon Festival in 2017. The Star of Algiers (Graywolf 2005, Serpents Tail 2006) is available in English translation by Ros Schwartz and Lulu Norman.