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WINNER OF THE PRIX GONCOURT DES LYCÉENS
WINNER OF THE PRIX LITTERAIRE DU MONDE
‘A family saga that begins like a fairy tale in the mountains of Kabylia – Ali, Naïma’s grandfather, makes his fortune by finding an olive press in a river – and turns to tragedy: fratricidal war, transit camps in France, racism and humiliations. The novel of a French identity that is forever variable and plural.’
L’Obs
‘Highly recommended . . . Alice Zeniter [has] a dual talent for keeping her eye on History which continues onward and on her characters in the reality of the moment.’
Grazia
‘A captivating exploration of the unspoken stories of the Algerian war.’
Le Monde
About the author
Alice Zeniter was born in 1986. She is the author of four novels; Sombre dimanche (Albin Michel, 2013) won the Prix du Livre Inter, the Prix des lecteurs de l’Express and the Prix de la Closerie des Lilas; Juste avant l’oubli (Flammarion, 2015) won the Prix Renaudot des lycéens. She is a playwright and theatre director.
Summary
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
Naïma 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? Naïma’s father, Hamid, claims to remember nothing. Now, Naïma 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 français (Royaume-Uni) as part of the Burgess programme.
Foreword
A powerful and moving family story about history, immigration and identity, spanning three generations and some seventy years across the two shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Additional text
A powerful family saga . . . [Zeniter] shows how history is passed down from generation to generation, in stories pockmarked by what’s left unsaid.
