Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants
Mathias Énard, Charlotte Mandell (translation)Michelangelo, after some hesitation, flees Rome and an irritated Pope Julius II -- whose commission he leaves unfinished -- and arrives in Constantinople for this truly epic project. Once there, he explores the beauty & wonder of the Ottoman Empire, sketching & describing his impressions along the way, & becomes immersed in cloak-and-dagger palace intrigues as he struggles to create what could be his greatest architectural masterwork.
Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants -- constructed from real historical fragments -- is a story about why stories are told, why bridges are built, & how seemingly unmatched pieces, seen from the opposite sides of civilization, can mirror one another"--
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Mathias Énard is the author of Compass (winner of the Prix Goncourt, the Leipzig Prize, & the Premio von Rezzori, & shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize), Zone, Street of Thieves, & The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild. He is also a translator from Persian & Arabic.