Boussole

WINNER FRANCE'S TOP LITERARY PRIZE, LE PRIX GONCOURT 2015

This is about one man, an Austrian musicologist called Franz Ritter, who is currently ill with an unspecified disease, who throws away the tablets his doctor gives him and lies awake at night, thinking about various things. These include his unrequited love for the French woman Sarah, his wide-ranging knowledge and views on primarily Western classical music but also some Middle Eastern music and, above all, on matters relating to the Middle East and, in particular, the relationship between Europe and the Middle East. He himself has travelled extensively in the Middle East (though not as much as Sarah) and is very knowledgeable about the subject and about the various Westerners who travelled there and were influenced by that part of the world. He gives us a wide-ranging selection of often highly opinionated anecdotes on the topic, from the various European women who travelled and lived in the Middle East to those writers and musicians who were very much influenced by it, from Balzac, the first Western novelist to insert a piece of Arabic into his novels to composers such as Liszt and Bartók whose music was influenced by the Middle East. He damns Wagner and praises Beethoven (not least because he left Germany, preferring to live in Vienna) and even receives a compass modelled on Beethoven s as a gift from Sarah, a compass which points not North but East. Above all it is a wonderful and learned recitation of the intellectual history of Europe and its association with the Middle East, told in a non-learned manner, as well as a discussion of music and musicology, as Ritter lies in bed in his flat in Vienna, listening to his neighbour, Herr Gruber, wandering around.

Né en 1972, Mathias Enard a étudié le persan et l'arabe et fait de longs séjours au Moyen-Orient. Il vit à Barcelone depuis une quinzaine d'années, interrompues en 2013 pour une résidence d'écriture à Berlin. Il est l'auteur de cinq romans chez Actes Sud : La Perfection du tir(2003, prix des Cinq Continents de la francophonie ; Babel n° 903), Remonter l'Orénoque (2005), Zone(2008, prix Décembre, prix du Livre Inter ; Babel n° 1020), Parle-leur de batailles, de rois et d'éléphants(2010, prix Goncourt des Lycéens, prix du Livre en Poitou-Charentes 2011) et Rue des Voleurs(2012, prix Liste Goncourt/Le Choix de l'Orient 2012, prix littéraire de la Porte Dorée 2013, prix du Roman-News 2013). Il est également l'auteur de Bréviaire des artificiers (Verticales, 2007) et de L'Alcool et la nostalgie (Inculte, 2011 ; Babel n° 1111) et, chez Actes Sud BD, de Tout sera oublié, roman graphique dont les illustrations sont signées Pierre Marquès (2013).