Boualem Sansal has emerged as one of the foremost and most controversial authors in contemporary Algeria. He is a politically engaged writer who has published six novels, a political pamphlet, and a stimulating essay entitled Petit éloge de la mémoire. His most recent novel Rue Darwin (Editions Gallimard, 2011) also deals with the theme of memory, delving into Algerian history since the 1950s, via the protagonist’s search for his own complex identity as someone who had two families in two worlds, both in Algeria. In his earlier work, Sansal criticizes the imposition of orthodoxy whether it takes the form of a single political party or an Islamist state. In Petit éloge de la mémoire he emphasizes that Algeria has known many diverse civilizations over its history and has incorporated them all: “It only remains for its people to rediscover its full memory” and thereby “construct its freedom.” In this paper, I argue that Rue Darwin can be read as a fictional approach to the discovery of memory and personal freedom. The novel was awarded the Prix du Roman Arabe in 2012 only to be challenged by a political orthodoxy when Sansal had the effrontery to attend a literary festival in Israel. One of the many sub-themes in the novel concerns the protagonist’s Jewish neighbor on rue Darwin and the memory of the holocaust. It is clear that Sansal’s imagination continues to challenge orthodoxy wherever it may appear and to celebrate cultural diversity and religious tolerance.