Compass

"I think Zone , which Enard had published in 2014, is the most serious work of fiction ever written. In terms of its level of engagement with the darkest side of the 20th century and its formal inventiveness … it’s a most astonishing book. And I don’t think Compass is as good. Very few books are as good. But it is a brilliant book, and incredibly timely in terms of the west’s relationship with the Middle East. And in a sense it’s a kind of fictionalised version of Edward Said’s Orientalism . It tells us something about how we, in the West, established our perceptions and our relationship with the East, with Otherness, and I found that deeply compelling. Enard found the ideal form with which to render it. His idea of a real-time sleepless night takes on a kind of dreamlike quality reminiscent of Arabian Nights . There’s an endless focus-pulling, and sometimes you think you’re in one city but you’re in another…. It’s a study of how we got where we are – and it’s deeply relevant in this age of Islamic State, but without overtly dealing with social issues or political issues. I am cautious about novels or art that are overtly politically or socially engaged because if a work of art can’t transcend the here-and-now it will fail. Enard’s work absolutely transcends this current moment in the West’s relationship with Islam. There’s a real, lasting greatness to his work. It should have won the Man Booker International. Fitzcarraldo Editions is, I think, making the best commissioning decisions in the UK."