Winner of the International Dublin Literary Award
'Remarkable . . . a novel about people that never loses its sense of humanity' - The Sunday Times
'Zeniter's extraordinary achievement is to transform a complicated conflict into a compelling family chronicle.' - The Wall Street Journal
Naima has always known that her father's family were from Algeria - but up until now, that has meant very little to her. Born and raised in France, her knowledge of that foreign country is limited to what she has learned from her grand parents' tiny flat in a crumbling French sink estate: the food cooked for her, the few precious things they brought with them when they fled.
On the past, her family is silent. Why was her grandfather Ali forced to leave? Naima's father, Hamid, claims to remember nothing. Now, Naima will see Algeria for herself, will ask the questions about her family's history that, until now, have had no answers.
Spanning three generations across seventy years, The Art of Losing tells the story of how people carry on in the face of loss - the loss of a country, an identity, a way to speak to your children - a story of colonization and immigration, and how we are a product of the things we have left behind.
Translated from the French by Frank Wynne
This book is supported by the Institut francais (Royaume-Uni) as part of the Burgess programme.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
With its panoramic vision and generous spirit, The Art of Losing finds shoots of hope amid the stony landscapes of the past. * Spectator * Remarkable . . . Because it deals with immigration, nationalism and Islam, it speaks urgently to our time . . . a novel about people that never loses its sense of humanity. * Sunday Times, 'Translated Book of the Month' * This pacy, complex piece of historical fiction (which was nominated for France's most prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt) explores the tangled reality of identity. * New Statesman * Ms. Zeniter's extraordinary achievement is to transform a complicated conflict into a compelling family chronicle, rich in visual detail and lustrous in language. * Wall Street Journal * An exceptional novel, a masterful meditation on the negative space of history. With surgical control and deep emotional precision, Alice Zeniter tells the story of a family at once severed from and forever tethered to its past. -- Omar El Akkad, author of <i>American War</i> A deeply human text about the ghosts of identity and decolonization. * Vanity Fair * A captivating exploration of the unspoken stories of the Algerian war. * Le Monde * A powerful family saga . . . [Zeniter] shows how history is passed down from generation to generation, in stories pockmarked by what's left unsaid. * L'Obs *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Zielgruppe
Interest Age: From 18 years
Maße
Höhe: 163 mm
Breite: 242 mm
Dicke: 44 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-5098-8411-7 (9781509884117)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Alice Zeniter is a French novelist, translator, scriptwriter and director. Her novel Take This Man was published in English in 2011. Zeniter has won many awards for her work in France, including the Prix Litteraire de la Porte Doree, the Prix Renaudot des Lyceens and the Prix Goncourt des Lyceens, which was awarded to The Art of Losing. She lives in Britanny, France.
