It is famous for precisely describing the methods of torture used by French paratroopers during the Algerian War from the point of view of a victim.

)[4] La Question then narrates Alleg's arrest on 12 June 1957 by paratroopers of Jacques Massu's 10e Division Parachutiste.

Alleg notably sustained water torture which he describes in the following account of what is now known as waterboarding ...they picked up the plank to which I was still attached and carried me into the kitchen.

Alleg describes in precise details the two types of hand generators (the so-called "gégène", in Army inventory to power radio communication equipment) used for this purpose and their effect on the body.

Instead of sharp and quick bites that seemed to rip my body apart, it was now a larger pain that sank more deeply into all my muscles and twisted them for longer[4]After physical duress and psychological pressure proved ineffective, Alleg was injected with pentothal, which also failed to make him talk.

Alleg was transferred to Lodi camp for one month, and later to the civil prison of Barberousse, where he was returned to the regular legal circuits.

La Question was published on 18 February 1958 by the Éditions de Minuit, with a preface by Jean-Paul Sartre;[1] Several newspapers which reported its publication had their issues confiscated by the police, upon a request by the military tribunal of Paris, and the book itself was censored on 27 March,[8] after selling 60,000 copies.

The French government officially banned La Question to deal with the increasingly tense political atmosphere.

[19] The book was instrumental in revealing the extent to which torture was used in Algeria by the French Army; the methods used; how it maintained a low profile in the public opinion; and how torture had slipped from being used on terrorists, under preemptive, "ticking time bomb scenario" excuses, to being used freely to terrorise political opponents and the general population.

[1] Enquiries followed, during which Alleg proved able to accurately describe parts of El-Biar which detainees would not visit in the course of a normal detention, such as the kitchen where he was submitted to water torture.