TELL THEM OF BATTLES, KINGS AND ELEPHANTS

Mathias Énard (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

Thoughtful and melancholy, this slim work from French novelist Mathias Énard may appear as a departure from the complexity of his other experiments in fiction. His debut, Zone, was comprised of a single sentence running over 500 pages, while Compass (winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt 2015) presented the distorted stream-of-consciousness of a musicologist. With Tell Them of Battles…, elegantly translated by Charlotte Mandell, Énard presents a counterfactual novella, exploring what-might’ve-been if Michelangelo had fled to Constantinople to design a bridge over the Golden Horn for Sultan Bayezid II. It’s hugely impressive in its ability to construct a convincing psychological portrait of the artist from scant historical sources, and continues the author’s fascination with the search for examples of collaborations between the Occident and the Orient. SP

Price: £10.99. Info: www.fitzcarraldoeditions.com