Antoine Gallimard, of the publisher, said the author was made “the target of a campaign of violent defamation organized by some media close to the Algerian government.

“Houris was certainly inspired by the tragic events that happened in Algeria … but its plot, its characters and its heroine are purely fictional.”

The trials against Daoud and his wife were made public in Algeria on Wednesday by lawyer Fatima Benbraham, a woman described by Le Monde newspaper as a “zealous supporter of the regime”.

She said the lawsuit was filed in August, shortly after the book’s publication, but was only disclosed now “because the plaintiffs did not want it to be said that they were trying to upset (the book’s) nomination for Goncourt.”

The row comes at a time of heightened tensions between Algeria and France, sparked by President Emmanuel Macron’s recent recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Algeria is the historical backer of the Polisario independence movement.

Macron’s move outraged many Algerians, who see the award to Daoud as a political rather than a literary gesture.

Another award-winning French-based Algerian writer, Boualel Sansal, was reported on Thursday to have disappeared in Algeria, with fears that he has been arrested.

Sansal, 75, was granted French citizenship earlier this year but regularly returned to Algeria. He is known as a critic of the Algerian regime as well as of Islamism.

He flew to Algiers from Paris last Saturday. His editor Jean-François Colosimo said he has not been heard from since.

“I’m more than concerned,” Colosimo said.