Mathias Énard

Mathias Énard
Mathias Énard in 2010
Born (1972-01-11) January 11, 1972
Niort, France
OccupationAuthor, translator, professor
EducationInstitut national des langues et civilisations orientales
École du Louvre
Notable works

Mathias Énard (born January 11, 1972) is a French writer and translator. He is the recipient of several literary awards, including the Prix Goncourt in 2015, for his novel Compass. Since 2020, he has produced and hosted a literary program on France Culture.

Early life

Énard was raised in Poitou by “a special ed teacher from Nice and a Basque speech therapist.”[1] After studying at the École du Louvre, he continued his studies in Arabic and Persian at INALCO[2], where he wrote his thesis on “post-war Arabic and Persian poetry and its relationship with European literature.”[1]

He did his military service in Syria, where he spent two years in Sweida, giving French classes at a cultural center.[1]

Career

In 2000 Énard moved to Barcelona[1], where he edited several cultural magazines. He then lived in Rome and Berlin. He has translated two books, one from Persian and the other from Arabic. He also served on the editorial board of the magazine Inculte[2] in Paris. In 2009, he taught Arabic at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.[3]

Énard’s first novel, La Perfection du tir,[2] was released in 2003. It is the story of a sniper during a nameless country’s civil war and his obsession with death. It won the Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie and the Prix Edmée-de-La-Rochefoucauld. It was also selected for the 2004 edition of the Festival du premier roman. [4]

From 2005 to 2006, Énard was a resident at the French Academy in Rome.[5]

Actes Sud published his novel Zone in 2008. It consists primarily of a single long sentence over its five hundred pages, with exceptions for three chapters, which are excerpts from a book the narrator is reading[6]. It was awarded many prizes, including the Prix Décembre, the Candide Preis, and the Prix du Livre Inter. [7]

In 2010, he published Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, a short story based on a likely fictional episode in the life of Michelangelo. It tells the story of a trip to Constantinople, where Michelangelo arrived on May 13, 1506, at the invitation of Sultan Bayezid II. It depicts a tolerant, European Constantinople that welcomes Jews expelled from Spain by the Catholic monarchs. It received the 2010 Prix Goncourt des Lycéens and the 25th Prix du Livre en Poitou-Charentes & La Voix des Lecteurs.[8]

Énard founded the contemporary art publishing house Scrawitch in 2011. A gallery by the same name existed until 2014 in the 11th arrondissement in Paris, co-founded with lithographer Thomas Marin and philosopher Julien Bézille.[9]

In 2012, Énard published Street of Thieves, the story of a young Moroccan man wandering around Spain during the Arab Spring and of the anti-austerity movement in Spain. At the 2012 edition of the Beirut Francophone Book Fair, the book received the first Liste Goncourt: Le choix de l'Orient prize, awarded by a jury of students from universities in Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries.[10] The book also received the Prix de l'Académie littéraire de Bretagne et des Pays de la Loire in 2013.

His 2015 novel Compass, which deals with the West's view of the Orient, was awarded the Prix Goncourt.[11]

Énard co-wrote the graphic novel Prendre refuge with illustrator Zeina Abirached in 2018.[2]

In 2020 he was Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature[12] at the University of Bern. Since the beginning of the 2020 academic year, he has hosted and produced the radio program L'entretien littéraire on France Culture on Sundays.[13]

At the end of 2020, Énard's novel The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild, which he worked on for 10 years, was published. Many of the book's stories take place in his hometown of Niort, in the Poitou region.[14]

In 2026, The Deserters, Charlotte Mandell's English translation of Énard's 2023 novel Déserter, was longlisted for the International Booker Prize.[15][16]

Works

Main article: Mathias Énard bibliography

Novels

  • (2003) La Perfection du tir (Perfecting the Shot, English ed. 2026)
  • (2005) Remonter l'Orénoque
  • (2007) Bréviaire des artificiers
  • (2008) Zone (English ed. 2010)
  • (2010) Parle-leur de batailles, de rois et d'éléphants (Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, English ed. 2018)
  • (2011) L'alcool et la nostalgie
  • (2012) Rue des voleurs (Street of Thieves, English ed. 2014)
  • (2015) Boussole (Compass, English ed. 2017)
  • (2018) Désir pour désir
  • (2020) Le Banquet annuel de la Confrérie des fossoyeurs (The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild, English ed. 2023)
  • (2023) Déserter (The Deserters, English ed. 2025)

Graphic Novels

  • (2013) Tout sera oublié. Illustrated by Pierre Marquès.
  • (2018) Prendre refuge. Co-written with and illustrated by Zeina Abirached.

Children’s Books

  • (2009) Mangée, mangée !. Illustrated by Pierre Marquès.

Poetry

  • (2016) Dernière communication à la société proustienne de Barcelone

Non-fiction

  • (2020) J'y mets ma langue à couper
  • (2024) Mélancole des confins - Nord

Awards and honours

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Grégoire Leménager (26 September 2015). "Mathias Enard, le nouveau Balzac" (in French). Le Nouvel Obs. Archived from the original on 15 September 2024. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d "Mathias Enard : "La rencontre avec le monde arabe et persan m'a formé et transformé"" (in French). France Culture. 17 July 2019. Archived from the original on 5 December 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  3. ^ "Notice d'autorité de la BnF" (in French).
  4. ^ "Les précédentes éditions du Festival" (in French). Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  5. ^ "Mathias Énard" (in French). Archived from the original on 10 August 2025. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  6. ^ "Mathias Énard : La fin d'Abou Firas l'inconvenant" (in French). D-Fiction. 1 June 2010. Archived from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h "Mathias Énard" (in French). Archived from the original on 10 February 2026. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  8. ^ "Rendez-vous autour des livres" (in French). Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  9. ^ "Contact" (in French). Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  10. ^ ""Rue des voleurs" de Mathias Enard, Liste Goncourt/Le Choix de l'Orient" (in French). Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  11. ^ a b Ken Willsher (3 November 2015). "France's top literary prize awarded to Mathias Énard". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  12. ^ "Mathias Énard". Walter Benjamin Kolleg. 16 January 2020. Archived from the original on 21 September 2020. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  13. ^ "La Conversation littéraire" (in French). Archived from the original on 7 December 2025. Retrieved 18 February 2026.
  14. ^ Elise Racque (6 September 2020). "Sur France Culture, Mathias Énard nous fait visiter "La Salle des machines" des écrivains" (in French). Archived from the original on 11 August 2025. Retrieved 18 February 2026.
  15. ^ "The International Booker Prize 2026". The Booker Prizes. Retrieved 25 February 2026.
  16. ^ Creamer, Ella (24 February 2026). "Witches, Nazi collaborators and banned books: International Booker prize announces 2026 longlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2026.
  17. ^ Victor De Sepausy (20 June 2013). "Mathias Énard, lauréat du Prix Roman-News 2013". actualitte.com. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  18. ^ Ken Willsher (3 November 2015). "France's top literary prize awarded to Mathias Énard". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  19. ^ "Flux". www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr. Archived from the original on 5 June 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  20. ^ "The Man Booker International Prize 2017 Longlist Announced". Man Booker International Prize 2017. 15 March 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  21. ^ Mathias Enard Vince il Premio Von Rezzori 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  22. ^ "Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding". City of Leipzig. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
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