Algeria France

Art of Losing

Name: Art of Losing
ISBN: 978-1250829269

by Alice Zeniter

Immigration Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Family Saga 2017

Summary

Some families inherit houses, photographs, and heirlooms. Others inherit silences.

When Naïma, a young French woman of Algerian descent, begins exploring her family history, she discovers how little she knows about the country her grandparents left behind. Her grandfather, Ali, once owned land in Algeria but fled to France after the Algerian War of Independence. Her father, Hamid, grew up determined to become French, leaving painful memories and unanswered questions buried in the past.

Spanning three generations and seven decades, The Art of Losing follows a family shaped by colonialism, displacement, and the struggle to belong. As Naïma begins uncovering the truth about her ancestors, she must confront a history that is both deeply personal and politically complicated. What does it mean to inherit a past you never experienced? And can you claim an identity when the stories that might explain it have been lost?

Moving between Algeria and France, Alice Zeniter explores the invisible burdens passed from parents to children: the languages forgotten, the memories suppressed, and the connections that survive despite distance. Winner of the 2022 International Dublin Literary Award, this sweeping family saga is a powerful meditation on exile, belonging, and the stories we need to understand ourselves.

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About the author

Alice Zeniter

Alice Zeniter is a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and director, born in 1986. Her family has Algerian roots, and her writing frequently explores the connections between personal identity, family memory, and the history of France and Algeria. She studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris and began publishing fiction in her twenties. Her earlier novels include Take This Man and Just Before Forgetting. Through her fiction and theatre work, Zeniter examines how historical events shape ordinary lives and how individuals navigate the expectations of society, family, and cultural heritage. Her fifth novel, The Art of Losing (L’Art de perdre), was published in France in 2017. It won the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens and the Le Monde Literary Prize, before receiving international recognition in Frank Wynne’s English translation. In 2022, it won the International Dublin Literary Award. Zeniter’s work is known for combining intimate character portraits with broader questions about colonialism, migration, and belonging. She continues to explore how the past lives on in the present—and how understanding inherited histories can help people imagine new ways of defining themselves.

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Details

Published: 2017
Author: Alice Zeniter

Art of Losing

Summary

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