Mathias Énard was born in Niort, France, in 1972. After training in Art History at the École du Louvre, he studied Arabic and Persian. After long stays in the Middle East, in 2000 he settled in Barcelona, where he collaborated with various cultural magazines. He joins his activity as a professor of Arabic at the Autonomous University of Barcelona with that of a translator.
Among his works published in Italy we remember Breviario per aspiranti terroristi (2009), Zona (Zone) (2011), Via dei ladri (Street of Thieves) (2014), Bussola (Compass) (2016), L’alcool e la nostalgia (2017), La perfezione del tiro (2018), Ultimo discorso alla Società proustiana di Barcellona (2020), Parlami di battaglie, di re e di elefanti (Thell them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants) (2021) and Il banchetto annuale della confraternita dei becchini (2021).
He has received numerous prizes and awards for his work, including the Goncourt Prize (2015), the Von Rezzori Prize (2017) and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Prize (2018), and was also a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize and at the European Premio Strega.
Photo by Basso Cannarsa
Bibliography
Breviario per aspiranti terroristi
translation by Alice Volpi
illustrations by Pierre Marquès
Nutrimenti, 2009
Zona
(Zone)
translation by Yasmina Melaouah
Rizzoli, 2011 and Edizioni E/O, 2022
Via dei ladri
(Street of Thieves)
translation by Yasmina Melaouah
Rizzoli, 2014
Bussola
(Compass)
translation by Yasmina Melaouah
Edizioni E/O, 2016
L’alcol e la nostalgia
(Alcohol and nostalgia)
translation by Yasmina Melaouah
Edizioni E/O, 2017
La perfezione del tiro
translation by Yasmina Melaouah
Edizioni E/O, 2018
Ultimo discorso alla Società proustiana di Barcellona
translation by Lorenzo Alunni
and Francesco Targhetta
Edizioni E/O, 2020
Parlami di battaglie, di re e di elefanti
(Thell them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants)
translation by Yasmina Melaouah
Edizioni E/O, 2021
Il banchetto annuale della Confraternita dei becchini
translation by Yasmina Melaouah
Edizioni E/O, 2021
