The Deserters

Mathias Énard (France) has built his work around the circulation of people, languages, and wars across overlapping historical and geographical spaces. In Zone, a single train journey becomes an inventory of modern violence from the Mediterranean to the Middle East, while Compass —winner of the Prix Goncourt— traces centuries of cultural exchange between Europe and the East through music, literature, and travel. His most recent novel, The Deserters, returns to war through two separated timelines, following figures who step away from systems of violence and the structures that sustain them.