In Tangier, young Lakhdar finds himself homeless after being caught in flagrante with his cousin Meryem. As the political and religious tensions in the Mediterranean flare up with the Arab Spring and the global financial crisis, Lakhdar and his friend Bassam entertain dreams of emigration, fuelled by a desire for freedom and a better life. Part political thriller, part road-movie, part romance, the latest novel by Mathias Enard takes us from the violence of Tangier's streets to Barcelona's louche Raval quarter. Street of Thieves is an intense coming-of-age story that delves deep into the brutal realities of the immigrant experience.

About the Author
Mathias Enard, born in 1972, studied Persian and Arabic and spent long periods in the Middle East. He has lived in Barcelona for about fifteen years, interrupted in 2013 by a writing residency in Berlin. He won several awards for Zone, including the Prix du Livre Inter and the Prix Decembre, and won the Liste Goncourt/Le Choix de l'Orient, the Prix litteraire de la Porte Doree and the Prix du Roman-News for Street of Thieves. He won the 2015 Prix Goncourt, the 2017 Leipziger Book Award for European Understanding, and was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize for Compass.

Reviews

'[Street of Thieves] confirms Enard as the most brazenly lapel-grabbing French writer since Michel Houellebecq.'
- Leo Robson, New Statesman

'This is what the great contemporary French novel should be. Enard looks at the world as it is: poisoned by religion, poisoned by politics, choking on materialism and dying of globalization. His prose bites, and his characters retain our sympathy however extreme their actions. Enard fuses the traditions of Celine and Camus, but he is his own man.'
- Patrick McGuinness, author of The Last Hundred Days

'Though his journeys are limited to Morocco, Tunisia and Spain, [Lakhdar's journeys] provide a glimpse into the tremors of the Arab spring, the threat of Islamic fundamentalism, and the indignados movement in Spain. ... Enard is an ambitious writer and his prose, in Charlotte Mandell's translation, has moments of devastating clarity.'
- Laila Lailami, Guardian

'A remarkable and important novel. I can't think of any better contemporary writers than Enard.'
- Thom Cuell, Bookmunch

'Street of Thieves is a feat of the imagination propelled by deep cultural familiarity and experience, an extraordinary animation of another person ... I'll read everything Enard writes from now on.'
- Lee Klein, 3:AM Magazine

'Street of Thieves represents the kind of fiction one hopes will emerge, from Enard or others, after the tumult once known as the Arab Spring has receded a little further into the past.'
- Robert F. Worth, New York Times

'Set against a backdrop of rising Islamic extremism, the Arab Spring, and the Occupy movement, Enard's latest novel is a howling elegy for thwarted youth.'
- Publishers Weekly

Book Information
ISBN 9780992974763
Author Mathias Enard
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Fitzcarraldo Editions
Publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions