{"product_id":"hear-our-defeats-9781609455002","title":"Hear Our Defeats","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \"propulsive\" historical novel about the battles--won, lost, and ongoing--that define us, from a winner of the Goncourt Prize (\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review).\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAssem, a French intelligence officer, is tasked with tracking down a former member of the US Special Forces suspected of drug trafficking during the war in Afghanistan. En route to Beirut, he shares a night with Mariam, an Iraqi archaeologist, who is in a race against time to save ancient artifacts across the Middle East from the destruction wreaked by ISIS.\u003cbr\u003eWoven into these two forceful, gripping storylines are meditations on humankind's bellicose history--Hannibal's failed march on Rome and the burning of his fleet on the waters of the Mediterranean; Grant's pursuit of the Confederates into rural Virginia; Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; and Emp. Haile Selassie's swift retreat from Ethiopia: all turning points in world history, each showing a different facet of how nations and individuals face defeat.\u003cbr\u003eThis novel is filled with both a philosophical sensibility and a riveting immediacy, seamlessly taking us across the battlefields of our past to reflect on the implications of conflicts being waged today. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eHear Our Defeats\u003c\/em\u003e is not a conventional historical novel, in the sense of trying to recreate the past imaginatively. Rather, it draws on a series of past episodes, from four discrete epochs--deliberately separated in time and place--to convey a message about time, violence and humanity.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLaurent Gaudé\u003c\/b\u003e is a French novelist and playwright. After being nominated for the 2002 Prix Concourt with \u003ci\u003eThe Death of King Tsongor\u003c\/i\u003e, he won the award in 2004 for his novel \u003ci\u003eThe Sun of the Scorta\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlison Anderson\u003c\/b\u003e's translations for Europa Editions include novels by Sélim Nassib, Amélie Nothomb, and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. She is the translator of \u003ci\u003eThe Elegance of the Hedgehog\u003c\/i\u003e (Europa, 2008) and \u003ci\u003eThe Life of Elves\u003c\/i\u003e (Europa, 2016) by Muriel Barbery.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Europa Editions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50505582772498,"sku":"9781609455002","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c6e6ecfb-ef2e-4f9c-b6a7-68220aba1408.jpg?v=1730841043","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/hear-our-defeats-9781609455002","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}