Novelist, poet and playwright Kateb Yacine, 60, considered one of Algeria's finest contemporary writers, died in France on Saturday of leukemia, the official news agency APS reported.
Yacine, an active supporter of Algeria's war for independence from France in the 1950s, first became known for his novel "Nedjma," an extended love poem to the title character, a woman who incarnates the Algerian revolution.He wrote novels and poems in French but since 1970 wrote mainly for the theater in the Algerian dialect of Arabic.
View Comments
His best-known play was "Mohamed, Get Your Suitcase."