Mathias Énard books

Mathias Enard is a French novelist and translator whose works explore the cultural connections between East and West, winner of the Prix Goncourt for Compass in 2015, with seven books published between 2008 and 2025.

Anthologies

Title Published Buy on Amazon
n+1 Issue 10: Self-Improvement 2010 Buy

Standalone Novels

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Zone 2008 Buy
Street of Thieves 2012 Buy
Compass 2015 Buy
Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants 2018 Buy
The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild 2020 Buy
The Deserters 2025 Buy

Mathias Enard is a French novelist whose work maps the cultural, artistic, and historical connections between Europe and the Middle East. His Prix Goncourt-winning novel Compass (2015) follows a Viennese musicologist through a night of fevered reflection on centuries of cultural exchange between East and West. The novel’s erudition and ambition are characteristic of Enard’s approach.

His other works include Zone (2008), a single-sentence novel about a French intelligence agent on a train journey across the Mediterranean, and Street of Thieves (2012), set during the Arab Spring. Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants (2018) imagines Michelangelo visiting Istanbul. Enard’s fiction is known for its intellectual range, its engagement with multiple languages and cultures, and its formal experimentation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Mathias Énard written?

Mathias Énard has written seven books across two series.

What was Mathias Énard's first book?

Mathias Énard’s first book is Zone, published in 2008.

What awards has Mathias Enard won?

He won the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize, in 2015 for Compass (Boussole), a novel about a musicologist reflecting on the cultural exchanges between Europe and the Middle East.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We may receive commissions for purchases made through links on this site.

Privacy Policy