Book description
Winner of the International Dublin Literary Award
'Remarkable . . . a novel about people that never loses its sense of humanity' - The Sunday Times
'Zeniter's extraordinary achievement is to transform a complicated conflict into a compelling family chronicle.' - The Wall Street Journal
Naima has always known that…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Art of Losing as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
My partner recommended this book, only recently translated into English, about a Parisian gallery worker, Naïma, who unravels her family's tangled history between rural Algeria and France. In this book, Zeniter explores the complex aftershocks of colonization and how they affect and inform subsequent generations of migrants.
Naïma’s family story in France begins when her grandfather, Ali, flees North Africa after the Algerian war for independence. Coming from a mountain village, Ali finds the decrepit French apartment blocks bewildering and unwelcoming. The final section of Zeniter’s book is devoted to Naïma’s return to Algeria, where she attempts to weave together…
From Ali's list on cities and exile.
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