This paper examines why and how Algerian Arabic novelist Bashir Mufti inscribes 'violence' in his novel Ashbah al-madinah al-maqtulah (The Ghosts of the Murdered City) (2012). The novel deals with one of the most traumatic episodes in Algerian contemporary history, namely the events of the 1990s. Commonly referred to as the Black Decade, the period was marked by th...