Mathias Enard [ France ]

Mathias Enard, born in Niort, France in 1972, initially studied contemporary art before subsequently going on to study Arabic and Persian. From 1992 onwards, he studied in Tehran, Egypt, Venice and Damascus. He also spent two years teaching French in a small town in Syria. Today, Mathias Enard teaches Arabic at the University of Barcelona.

In 1990, he published two collections of poems with illustrations by Thomas Marin: »Travail de nuit« (t: Night work), published by »Frank Bordas« and »Parfois entre nous la mer« (Sometimes between us the sea) by »Editions du Zinc«. His first novel appeared in 2003: «La perfection du tir« (The per - fection of the shot, «Actes Sud«), the story of a sniper in a city devastated by civil war. In 2005, the novel »Remonter l´Orénoque« (On the Orinoco, Actes Sud) followed. In 2005, Mathias Enard spent one year as a guest artist at the Villa Medici in Rome. In 2007, his humorous essay on terrorism, »Bréviaire des artificiers« (The blaster’s prayer book), was published by »Verticales«.

As part of the 2008 »rentrée littéraire«, »Actes Sud« published his novel »Zone«, which was widely acclaimed by critics. A mysterious passenger gets onto a train on its journey from Milan to Rome. That night, Francis Servain Mirkovic thinks back over all the shadow figures, agitators and terrorists, financial backers or middlemen, weapons dealers and war criminals on the run that he has encountered in his fifteen years operating as an agent in his zone; this was at first Algeria and then expanded gradually to include the whole Middle East. The French culture magazine Télérama commented: »Apart from a few commas, there is no punctu ation: a single sentence plunges through the novel, endless, carried by fury, possessed by murderous frenzy and an unimaginable longing for resurrection.«

Mathias Enard writes for various cultural magazines and is an active member of the editorial staff of the magazine »Inculte«.

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