When the reteller of Albert Camus’s classic “The Stranger” received a fatwa

There are elements of the absurd about the plight of Kamel Daoud, an Algerian writer whose debut novel reaped glowing international reviews, literary honors and then, suddenly, demands for his public execution.

His book, “Meursault, Counter-Investigation,” is a retelling of Albert Camus’s classic “The Stranger,” from an Algerian perspective. Within its 160 pages, Mr. Daoud (pronounced DOW-ood) gives voice to the brother of the nameless Arab murder victim who is shot five times on a beach in Algiers by the antihero, Meursault.