Mathias Enard studied Persian and Arabic and spent long periods in the Middle East. A professor of Arabic at the University of Barcelona, he won the Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie and the Prix Edmee de la Rochefoucault for his first novel, La perfection du tir. He has been awarded many prizes for Zone, including the Prix du Livre Inter and the Prix Decembre.
‘[Street of Thieves] confirms Enard as the most brazenly
lapel-grabbing French writer since Michel Houellebecq.’
— Leo Robson, New Statesman
‘This is what the great contemporary French novel should be. Enard
looks at the world as it is: poisoned by religion, poisoned by
politics, choking on materialism and dying of globalization. His
prose bites, and his characters retain our sympathy however extreme
their actions. Enard fuses the traditions of Céline and Camus, but
he is his own man.’
— Patrick McGuinness, author of The Last Hundred Days
‘Though his journeys are limited to Morocco, Tunisia and Spain,
[Lakhdar's journeys] provide a glimpse into the tremors of the Arab
spring, the threat of Islamic fundamentalism, and the indignados
movement in Spain. ... Enard is an ambitious writer and his prose,
in Charlotte Mandell’s translation, has moments of devastating
clarity.’
— Laila Lailami, Guardian
‘A remarkable and important novel. I can’t think of any better
contemporary writers than Enard.’
— Thom Cuell, Bookmunch
‘Street of Thieves is a feat of the imagination propelled by deep
cultural familiarity and experience, an extraordinary animation of
another person ... I’ll read everything Enard writes from now
on.’
— Lee Klein, 3:AM Magazine
‘Street of Thieves represents the kind of fiction one hopes will
emerge, from Enard or others, after the tumult once known as the
Arab Spring has receded a little further into the past.’
— Robert F. Worth, New York Times
‘Set against a backdrop of rising Islamic extremism, the Arab
Spring, and the Occupy movement, Enard’s latest novel is a howling
elegy for thwarted youth.’
— Publishers Weekly
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