Convertida en un fenomeno literario, El arte de perder es una novela arrebatadora sobre los origenes, la identidad y la libertad de ser uno mismo.

Para Naima, una joven francesa que trabaja en una galeria de arte parisina, Argelia, el pais del que proceden su padre y sus abuelos, ha sido durante mucho tiempo solamente un punto difuso en el mapa sin demasiado interes. Sin embargo, en una sociedad agitada por el debate sobre la inmigracion y el racismo a causa de los atentados de Paris, todo parece querer devolverla a la tierra de sus ancestros. Pero ?que relacion puede tener Naima con una historia que nunca le han contado? Su abuelo Ali, un cabileno de las montanas cercanas a la antigua Palestro, murio antes de que pudiera preguntarle por que abandono su aldea y se convirtio en un expatriado; Yema, su abuela, quiza pudiera responderle, pero no en una lengua comprensible para Naima. En cuanto a Hamid, su padre, un chiquillo brillante llegado el verano de 1962 a uno de los campos de refugiados construidos a toda prisa en Francia, ha decidido no hablar de la Argelia de su ninez. Un drastico silencio familiar que para Naima, francesa de suelo pero de ascendencia argelina, no deja de ser en buena medida una manera de dominar el arte de perder.

DESCRIPTION IN ENGLISH

A gripping, multigenerational tale of a French Algerian woman, her family’s past, and the legacies of colonialism

Naima’s family comes from Algeria, but she knows it only from what she experiences in her grandparents’ tiny apartment in Normandy: the food her grandmother cooks, the precious things they carried when they fled. Naima’s father claims to remember nothing, has made himself French. But now, one of them is going back; Naima will see for herself what was left behind including the family secrets.

How do we protect our families and choose the right side of war, revolution? What price will our descendants pay for the choices we make? Will they judge us fairly? During the War for Algerian Independence, Naima’s grandfather went from being the wealthy owner of a olive grove to an immigrant scratching out a living in France. Her search reveals how the battle against colonial rule reshaped communities, created deep rifts within families, and let the whims of whoever might be in power instantly overturn the lives of ordinary people.

Alice Zeniter’s The Art of Losing is a powerful, moving family novel that spans three generations, across seventy years and two shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a resonant, accessible history of Algeria and the diaspora through the people who lived it. It is also the story of how we carry on in the face of loss: loss of a country, identity, language, connection. And it is, ultimately, an immersive, unforgettable excavation of the personal legacies of colonialism, immigration, and war.