May the Tigris Grieve for You
Author(s): Emilienne Malfatto
Novel | Middle East | Translated fiction | Les Fugitives | 2024 Republic of Consciousness Prize long list
Rural Iraq, during the war against the Islamic State. A pregnancy out of wedlock. The young woman knows her fate is sealed. In crystalline prose May the Tigris Grieve for You enters the minds of all protagonists, before and after death; fragments of the legend of Gilgamesh, the Mesopotamian hero who carries along the memory of the country and its people, punctuate the family members' short monologues, spaced with the mythical voice of the Tigris River, who has seen it all.
Inspired by her experience of Iraq's complex reality and brutal wars, Malfatto delivers an uncompromising yet compassionate insight into a rigid society ruled by fathers and sons, a world in which life matters less than honour. Winner of the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman 2021.
‘A prose poem of devastating power, conveyed in simple devastating prose. It’s about war and loss, conformity and obligation, but most importantly about misogyny, femicide, power, vulnerability, and the injustice of it all. A poignant and thought-provoking novella, that will take you an hour to read, but the inequity at its heart will stay with you for a very, very long time.’ — Paul Burke
‘This taut narrative is both poetic and fraught. Emilienne’s eye for journalistic detail gives us unforgettable images, and her poetic sensibility transmutes the story into a timeless tale.’ – Naima Rashid
‘A chorus of a novel with a rare intensity... here honour rhymes with horror. Each page is dazzling.’ – Figaro Littéraire
Emilienne Malfatto is a journalist and photographer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post and New York Times, among other places. She studied in France and Colombia, and worked for the French international news agency AFP before going freelance. She is the author of the novels Que sur toi se lamente le tigre, winner of the 2021 Prix Goncourt du Premier roman, and Le colonel ne dort pas (2022), as well as the work of investigative journalism Les serpents viendront pour toi, winner of the 2021 Prix Albert-Londres.
Lorna Scott Fox is a British journalist, literary critic and translator based in London. From 1986 to 2004 she lived in Mexico and Spain, where she wrote for the local press and produced art catalogue essays. Her translations from the French include Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso: Correspondence (2008), works of fiction, and most lately A Journey Across Borders and Through Identities by Julia Kristeva (2020). Her reportage, essays and reviews have appeared in the London Review of Books, The Nation, El País, Times Literary Supplement and Sidecar.
Product Information
General Fields
- :
- : Les Fugitives
- : Les Fugitives
- : 01 April 2023
- : books
Special Fields
- : Emilienne Malfatto
- : Paperback
- : English
- : Translated from the French by Lorna Scott Fox
