Intizar Hussain left us. He was 92 years old.
Novelist, columnist, critic, journalist, biographer, and in all things poet, Intizar Hussain was one of the very first writers to impose himself outside the borders of this young country, Pakistan, where he had decided to live from its foundation in 1947.
He was also a great friend of France and its culture. Thanks to him, to his very beautiful and faithful translations, his fellow citizens were able to discover in Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, the work of Sartre, Gide and Camus.
France was able to pay her a final tribute a little over a year ago, in September 2014, when our ambassador in Islamabad presented her with the insignia of Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters. It was a universal spirit anxious to promote in every possible way the indispensable dialogue of cultures.
I extend my condolences to his loved ones.