Mathias Énard

Mathias Énard studied at Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales and École du Louvre. The recorded working language is French and Arabic. The field of work recorded is French literature, translation from Arabic and translations from Persian language. Places of work recorded in the authority are Barcelona. Employment is recorded with Autonomous University of Barcelona. Works named in the authority record are Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants. Distinctions recorded are Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, Prix Goncourt, Prix du Livre Inter and Candide Preis.

• Name — Mathias Énard • Born — 11 January 1972 • Birthplace — Niort, France • Occupation — Author, translator, professor • Education — Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales École du Louvre • Notable Works — * La Perfection du tir (2003) • Zone (2008) • Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants (2010) • Compass (2015)

Énard was raised in Poitou by “a special ed teacher from Nice and a Basque speech therapist.” After studying at the École du Louvre, he continued his studies in Arabic and Persian at INALCO, where he wrote his thesis on “post-war Arabic and Persian poetry and its relationship with European literature.” He did his military service in Syria, where he spent two years in Sweida, giving French classes at a cultural centre.

In 2000 Énard moved to Barcelona, where he edited several cultural magazines. He then lived in Rome and Berlin. He has translated two books, one from Persian and the other from Arabic. He also served on the editorial board of the magazine Inculte in Paris. In 2009, he taught Arabic at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Énard’s first novel, La Perfection du tir, was released in 2003. It is the story of a sniper during a nameless country’s civil war and his obsession with death. It won the Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie and the Prix Edmée-de-La-Rochefoucauld. It was also selected for the 2004 edition of the Festival du premier roman. From 2005 to 2006, Énard was a resident at the French Academy in Rome. Actes Sud published his novel Zone in 2008. It consists primarily of a single long sentence over its five hundred pages, with exceptions for three chapters, which are excerpts from a book the narrator is reading. It was awarded many prizes, including the Prix Décembre, the Candide Preis, and the Prix du Livre Inter. In 2010, he published Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, a short story based on a likely fictional episode in the life of Michelangelo. It tells the story of a trip to Constantinople, where Michelangelo arrived on May 13, 1506, at the invitation of Sultan Bayezid II. It depicts a tolerant, European Constantinople that welcomes Jews expelled from Spain by the Catholic monarchs. It received the 2010 Prix Goncourt des Lycéens and the 25th Prix du Livre en Poitou-Charentes & La Voix des Lecteurs. Énard founded the contemporary art publishing house Scrawitch in 2011. A gallery by the same name existed until 2014 in the 11th arrondissement in Paris, co-founded with lithographer Thomas Marin and philosopher Julien Bézille. In 2012, Énard published Street of Thieves, the story of a young Moroccan man wandering around Spain during the Arab Spring and of the anti-austerity movement in Spain. At the 2012 edition of the Beirut Francophone Book Fair, the book received the first Liste Goncourt: Le choix de l'Orient prize, awarded by a jury of students from universities in Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries. The book also received the Prix de l'Académie littéraire de Bretagne et des Pays de la Loire in 2013. His 2015 novel Compass, which deals with the West's view of the Orient, was awarded the Prix Goncourt. Énard co-wrote the graphic novel Prendre refuge with illustrator Zeina Abirached in 2018. In 2020 he was Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature at the University of Bern. Since the beginning of the 2020 academic year, he has hosted and produced the radio program L'entretien littéraire on France Culture on Sundays. At the end of 2020, Énard's novel The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild, which he worked on for 10 years, was published. Many of the book's stories take place in his hometown of Niort, in the Poitou region. In 2026, The Deserters, Charlotte Mandell's English translation of Énard's 2023 novel Déserter, was longlisted for the International Booker Prize.

• (2003) La Perfection du tir (Perfecting the Shot, English ed. 2026) • (2005) Remonter l'Orénoque • (2007) Bréviaire des artificiers • (2008) Zone (English ed. 2010) • (2010) Parle-leur de batailles, de rois et d'éléphants (Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, English ed. 2018) • (2011) L'alcool et la nostalgie • (2012) Rue des voleurs (Street of Thieves, English ed. 2014) • (2015) Boussole (Compass, English ed. 2017) • (2018) Désir pour désir • (2020) Le Banquet annuel de la Confrérie des fossoyeurs (The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild, English ed. 2023) • (2023) Déserter (The Deserters, English ed. 2025)

• (2013) Tout sera oublié. Illustrated by Pierre Marquès. • (2018) Prendre refuge. Co-written with and illustrated by Zeina Abirached.

• (2016) Dernière communication à la société proustienne de Barcelone

• (2020) J'y mets ma langue à couper • (2024) Mélancole des confins - Nord

Mathias Énard worked in French literature, translation from Arabic and translations from Persian language. He was employed by Autonomous University of Barcelona. He belonged to Societat Catalana d’Amics de Marcel Proust. He worked at Barcelona.

Mathias Énard is recorded as translator, writer and university teacher.