The Art of Losing (novel)
The Art of Losing (original French title: L'Art de perdre) is a 2017 novel by Alice Zeniter, translated from French to English by Frank Wynne. L'art de perdre is Zeniter's fifth book and the second translated into English.
Plot
The novel follows a family through three generations starting with a Kabyle grandfather, who helps neither the FLN nor the French colonists during the Algerian War. Fearing that his family would be treated as Harki traitors after independence regardless, due to his known aversion to the "fellagha", he manages to secure passage to the Rivesaltes camp and later to an HLM in Normandy where his granddaughter Naïma's father grows up. Little of this history is shared with Naïma (the main character), and this shapes her identity as much as the places and events she turns up in her research prior to a trip to Algeria undertaken to secure a dying artist's sketches for an exhibition in Paris. As she returns to Algiers to fly back to France, it is the last in a series of Algerian drivers who recites Elizabeth Bishop's poem "The Art of Losing" to her.[1][2][3]
Awards
It won many awards, including the 2017 Prix Goncourt des Lycéens[4][5] and Le Monde’s Literary Prize.[6][7] The English translation won the Dublin Literary Award in 2022.[8][9][1]
Reception
Grace Byron in The Observer called it "...a book that requires rapt attention. It is a novel that scales the walls of history and excavates lessons with curiosity and anger... The Art of Losing is a visceral book. It does not shy away from writing history in shades of gray, nor does it glamorize those who fought for Algerian independence. "[10]
Angelique Chrisafis in The Guardian wrote "The book reflects the current thirst in French storytelling for writers of mixed heritage to address parts of history and society that have been left untold."[11]
Liesl Schillinger wrote in The Washington Street Journal that "Zeniter’s extraordinary achievement is to transform a complicated conflict into a compelling family chronicle, rich in visual detail and lustrous in language. Her storytelling, splendidly translated by Frank Wynne, carries the reader through different generations, cities, cultures, and mindsets without breaking its spell…"[1]
Boyd Tonkin in The Spectator said the novel "show[s] how tough a task awaits any reconciler of the past’s mangled accounts. Not only, as Alice Zeniter’s heroine Naïma reflects in The Art of Losing, has each community ‘reached an agreement on the version of history that suited them', but internal rifts fragment them."[12]
References
- 1 2 3 Schillinger, Liesl (19 March 2021). "'The Art of Losing' Review: Past Imperfect". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ↑ Chaulet Achour, Christiane (25 September 2017). "Les « innommables » s'adressent aux « épargnés »: L'Art de perdre d'Alice Zeniter". Diacritik (in French).
- ↑ de Rochebrune, Renaud (12 January 2018). "Littérature : « L'Art de perdre », un hommage aux vaincus de la guerre d'Algérie". Jeune Afrique (in French).
- ↑ "Alice Zeniter décroche le Prix Goncourt des lycéens 2017 avec «L'art de perdre»". RFI (in French). 16 November 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ↑ "Ouf, une femme a remporté un prix littéraire cette année. C'était pas gagné". Le HuffPost (in French). 16 November 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ↑ "History Lessons: Alice Zeniter's 'The Art of Losing'". Observer. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ↑ "Alice Zeniter: Writing the Silence of a History Without Heroes". France-Amérique. 6 May 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ↑ "The Art of Losing". International Dublin Literary Award. 9 November 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ↑ "The Art of Losing wins €100,000 Dublin Literary Award". The Irish Times. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ↑ "History Lessons: Alice Zeniter's 'The Art of Losing'". Observer. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
- ↑ Chrisafis, Angelique (23 November 2019). "'There is a thirst for writers of mixed heritage': what is France reading?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
- ↑ Tonkin, Boyd (25 February 2021). "Algeria's War of Independence still leaves festering wounds, two new novels reveal". The Spectator. Retrieved 28 February 2024.