Famous Author Accused of Using Psychiatrist Wife's Confidential Patient Files as Basis for Award-Winning Novel

A famous author has been accused of using the confidential files of his psychiatrist wife's patient as the basis for his novel that won him the highest literacy award in France.

In Kamel Daoud's book "Houris," a woman who loses her voice after her throat is cut by an Islamist during Algeria's civil war between the government and Islamist groups, as reported by The Guardian.

But Saada Arbane, a real survivor of the war which took place from 1992 to 2002, is claiming that her life story was used as the basis for the book after she recounted her experiences to a therapist, who has since become the author's wife, as reported by AFP.

"Right after the publication of the book, we filed two complaints against Kamel Daoud and his wife Aicha Dehdouh, the psychiatrist who treated the victim," Fatima Benbraham, Arbane's lawyer, told AFP.

While the lawyer claimed that the book violated "medical confidentiality," Antoine Gallimard, a lead publisher of the Gallimard publishing house, said that the book's plot is "purely fictional."

"Since the publication of his novel, Kamel Daoud has been the subject of violent defamatory campaigns orchestrated by certain media close to a regime whose nature is well known," Gallimard told AFP. "It is now the turn of his wife — who in no way is a source for 'Houris' — to be attacked over her professional integrity."

Daoud was awarded the Prix Goncourt for "Houris" earlier this month, which is typically given to the best literary work of the year. The book has been banned in Algeria however, as the country has restrictions on content created around or about the civil war.