The latest addition to my website is Boualem Sansal‘s 2084 la fin du monde (2084: The End Of The World). This is Sansal’s updated, Algerianised 1984. Though he refers to 1984, it is a very different book. It is essentially a satire on religious control and orthodoxy in Algeria and Saudi Arabia and similar states. The book is set at some future time (not necessarily 2084) in Abistan which, as far as most of the inhabitants know, covers the entire world. Our hero is Ati and he is trying to discover whether if what the religious authorities have led the people to believe is true. He has to undertake two long and difficult journeys to do so and we follow his adventures. Sansal is very damning of Islamic fundamentalism as found in Algeria, Saudi Arabia, etc. and tells a very good story of how Ati learns what he is not meant to learn.