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[ Buchtipp von Beat Mazenauer ] In 2008, the French Arabic scholar and novelist Mathias Enard published the novel "Zone". His most ambitious and successful book to date, this epic work in one sentence over 500 pages tells of the wars of the 20th century. The main character is the former secret agent Francis Servain who wants to change his life and so takes stock of his past. On a 500-kilometre train ride from Milan to Rome, he looks back through a meandering stream of memories at his career on Mediterranean battlefields - from Algeria and Lebanon to Yugoslavia.

"Zone" is a superb narrative work on war and despair. Vicariously, as it were, Francis experiences what people of the 20th century suffered as victims and inflicted on others as perpetrators. The regions in which he operates are identical to those sunny destinations frequented by millions of tourists. These tourists now dance, so to speak, ‘on the cadavers’ of recent wars.

"Zone", wrote Grégoire Leménager in the Nouvel Observateur, is less a novel than a ‘phantom train populated with crimes against humanity, with rape, and crime-obsessed authors (Burroughs, Lowry, Joyce...)’. Enard deserves praise for his ingenuity in finding a subtle linguistic form for his incredibly detailed knowledge of war, crime, and the human condition. Zone is a new Iliad, the portrait of a barbarous century that is still not over and so remains disturbing to this day.

[ Info ] Enard, Mathias: Zone. (original language: Französisch) Actes Sud, Paris, 2008 .