From the winner of the Prix Goncourt, an epic, furious novel that shows the dangers of ideology and the aftermath of war
A filthy and exhausted soldier emerges from the Mediterranean wilderness—he is escaping from an unspecified war, trying to flee incessant violence and find refuge in solitude. Meanwhile, on September 11, 2001, aboard a small cruise ship, a scientific conference takes place to pay tribute to renowned East German mathematician Paul Heudeber, a committed communist and anti-fascist, and a survivor of the camps at Buchenwald.The tension grows between these two narrative threads, and—pulled together in Mathias Énard’s enchanting, brilliant, erudite prose—time itself seems to become tightly interwoven, drawn together by the immense stakes of love and politics, loyalty and belief, hope and survival.
Genre: Literary Fiction
A filthy and exhausted soldier emerges from the Mediterranean wilderness—he is escaping from an unspecified war, trying to flee incessant violence and find refuge in solitude. Meanwhile, on September 11, 2001, aboard a small cruise ship, a scientific conference takes place to pay tribute to renowned East German mathematician Paul Heudeber, a committed communist and anti-fascist, and a survivor of the camps at Buchenwald.The tension grows between these two narrative threads, and—pulled together in Mathias Énard’s enchanting, brilliant, erudite prose—time itself seems to become tightly interwoven, drawn together by the immense stakes of love and politics, loyalty and belief, hope and survival.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"A novelist like Enard feels particularly necessary right now, though to say this may actually be to undersell his work. He is not a polemicist but an artist, one whose novels will always have something to say to us." - Christopher Beha
"Mathias Enard is one of the best contemporary French writers, and his works - ambitious, erudite, multifaceted, surprising and unconventional - are always worth reading, because they always strike a perfect balance between the best that literature can offer: pleasure and knowledge." - Javier Cercas
"All of Enard's books share the hope of transposing prose into the empyrean of pure sound, where words can never correspond to stable meanings. He's the composer of a discomposing age." - Joshua Cohen
"By turns rich in searing detail and sweeping in its intellectual range, The Deserters threads together Europe's weighty past with a darker elemental future. Mathias Enard, always masterful, creates a fiercely compelling dual narrative, surprising, glitteringly alive and unforgettable." - Claire Messud
"Every novel by Mathias Enard reminds me of the reasons why I read fiction. He is ambitious, erudite, full of life, and a wonderful stylist to boot. He is one of the great novelists of our time." - Juan Gabriel Vásquez
"Mathias Enard is one of the best contemporary French writers, and his works - ambitious, erudite, multifaceted, surprising and unconventional - are always worth reading, because they always strike a perfect balance between the best that literature can offer: pleasure and knowledge." - Javier Cercas
"All of Enard's books share the hope of transposing prose into the empyrean of pure sound, where words can never correspond to stable meanings. He's the composer of a discomposing age." - Joshua Cohen
"By turns rich in searing detail and sweeping in its intellectual range, The Deserters threads together Europe's weighty past with a darker elemental future. Mathias Enard, always masterful, creates a fiercely compelling dual narrative, surprising, glitteringly alive and unforgettable." - Claire Messud
"Every novel by Mathias Enard reminds me of the reasons why I read fiction. He is ambitious, erudite, full of life, and a wonderful stylist to boot. He is one of the great novelists of our time." - Juan Gabriel Vásquez
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