Acknowledgements
This book is full of all those who have entrusted me with their stories, Vlaho C., Ghassan D., Imad el-Haddad, Youssef Bazzi, Sandra Balsells, Sylvain Estibal, Igor Marojević, Alexandra Petrova, David Blumberg, Patrick Deville, Alviero Lippi, Hugo Orlandini, Ahmet Riyahi, the late Eduardo Rózsa, Yasmina Belhaj, Hans B., Mirjam Fruttiger, Manos Demetrios and all the others, witnesses, victims, or killers, in Barcelona, Beirut, Damascus, Zagreb, Algiers, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Rome, Trieste, Istanbul. I also have an immense debt to journalists, historians, filmmakers, and documentary makers whose work I have used, during the years spent in the Zone, as well as to those who have accompanied me on those long journeys. Thank you to Jean Rolin for having generously allowed me to entitle this book Zone, as I had planned. Thank you to Barbara, to Peter the Great, to the whole Rat Pack, and to Claro who, along with friendship, shelter and food, offered me the two pages of the discovered journal by Francesc Boix.
To confess wrong without losing rightness: Charity
have I had sometimes, I cannot make it flow thru.
A little light, like a rushlight
To lead back to splendour.
—Ezra Pound
About the Author
Mathias Énard 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 Edmée 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 Décembre.
About the Translator
Charlotte Mandell has translated fiction, poetry, and philosophy from the French, including works by Proust, Flaubert, Genet, Maupassant, Blanchot, and many other distinguished authors. She has received many accolades and awards for her translations, including a Literature Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for Zone.
About Open Letter
Open Letter—the University of Rochester’s nonprofit, literary translation press—is one of only a handful of publishing houses dedicated to increasing access to world literature for English readers. Publishing ten titles in translation each year, Open Letter searches for works that are extraordinary and influential, works that we hope will become the classics of tomorrow.
Making world literature available in English is crucial to opening our cultural borders, and its availability plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy and vibrant book culture. Open Letter strives to cultivate an audience for these works by helping readers discover imaginative, stunning works of fiction and by creating a constellation of international writing that is engaging, stimulating, and enduring.
Current and forthcoming titles from Open Letter include works from Argentina, Catalonia, Peru, Poland, South Africa, and numerous other countries.
www.openletterbooks.org
Table of Contents
Praise for Zone
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
ZONE
Milestones
Epigraph
I
II
III
IV
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII
XXIV
Acknowledgements
About the Author
About the Translator
About Open Letter