Vaste est la prison

the long version

"Djebar's fiction, like that of Nadine Gordimer and Edna O'Brien, wrestles with issues of oppression and the subtle ways language and history enforce it."--BOOK JACKET. "So Vast the Prison tells the story of a modern, educated Algerian woman, raised in the years of Colonial oppression and the Algerian War, whose older brother was imprisoned in France. She watches her marriage disintegrate in a society intolerant of women, even as she marvels at the closeness of women among themselves at the ritual baths and in other gatherings. Woven into the woman's personal life story is the ancient history of her land, including the loss of its early languages, the massive destruction suffered in wars of conquest, and the quirks of chance which enabled traces to remain."--BOOK JACKET.