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Book Synopsis

Fleeing a nameless war, a soldier emerges from the Mediterranean scrubland, filthy, exhausted and seeking refuge. A chance meeting forces him to rethink his journey, and the price he puts on a life. On 11 September 2001, aboard a small cruise ship near Berlin, a scientific conference pays tribute to the late Paul Heudeber, an East German mathematician, Buchenwald survivor, communist and anti-fascist whose commitment to his side of the Wall was unshaken by its collapse. The oblique pull between these two narratives a cipher in itself brings to light everything that is at stake in times of conflict: truth and deception, loyalty and betrayal, hope and despair. Superbly translated by Charlotte Mandell and told in Mathias Enard's typically mesmerizing, inventive prose,The Deserterslays bare the ravages of war on the most intimate aspects of life and asks what remains of our selves in its wreckage.

The Deserters

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    A Paperback by Mathias Enard

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      Book details

      Publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions
      Published 5 August 2025
      ISBN-13 9781804271636
      978-1804271636
      ISBN-10 1804271632
      Also in:
      Fiction Contemporary Fiction

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Fleeing a nameless war, a soldier emerges from the Mediterranean scrubland, filthy, exhausted and seeking refuge. A chance meeting forces him to rethink his journey, and the price he puts on a life. On 11 September 2001, aboard a small cruise ship near Berlin, a scientific conference pays tribute to the late Paul Heudeber, an East German mathematician, Buchenwald survivor, communist and anti-fascist whose commitment to his side of the Wall was unshaken by its collapse. The oblique pull between these two narratives a cipher in itself brings to light everything that is at stake in times of conflict: truth and deception, loyalty and betrayal, hope and despair. Superbly translated by Charlotte Mandell and told in Mathias Enard's typically mesmerizing, inventive prose,The Deserterslays bare the ravages of war on the most intimate aspects of life and asks what remains of our selves in its wreckage.

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