Adoum married Nicole Rouan from Gimel, Switzerland in 1977. They first met in Geneva in 1970 when Nicole was an actress in the French-version of his new play "El sol bajo las patas de los caballos" (French title: “Le Soleil Foule Par Les Chevaux”, English title: "The Sun Trampled Beneath the Horses' Hooves"). "She offered us cherries and a moment of pleasant company," is how Julio Cortázar referred to Nicole Rouen in the first few pages of "The Autonauts of the Cosmoroute". Nicole translated Adoum's work into French. She died on July 13, 2011.