'' Compass'' (french: Boussole ) is a novel by the French writer

Mathias Énard Mathias Énard (born 1972) is a French novelist. He 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 awa ...

, published in 2015. The book received the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

Premise

During a sleepless night in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, the musicologist Franz Ritter looks back on his life, his university career, his stays in the

Orient The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...

, and his love, Sarah.

Reception

Writing in ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', Raphaëlle Leyris remarked that if Énard's earlier novel ''

Zone Zone or The Zone may refer to: Places Climate and altitude zones * Death zone (originally the lethal zone), altitudes above a certain point where the amount of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span * Frigid zone, ...

'' was a book of violence and hate, ''Compass'' may be the antidote with the taste of the unknown and curiosity for the other at its heart. described ''Compass'' as an ‘intimate and effusive encyclopedia disguised as a novel’. He went on to make reference to Enard's erudition and background as an orientalist. In a piece on

Orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...

published in the ''

New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

'', Adam Shatz argued that with ''Compass'' Enard had failed to ‘transcend the oppressive nature of Orientalism, via paradoxically, the Orientalist tradition itself’. The novel has also been described in the press as a ‘masterful novel’ that recognises the contribution of Islamic and Middle Eastern cultures to the canon, ‘lyrically and intellectually rich’, and a ‘powerful work’ that also threatens to send the reader to sleep with its level of detail.

References

2015 French novels French-language novels Prix Goncourt winning works Actes Sud books Novels set in Vienna {{2010s-novel-stub

Premise

Reception

See also

References