A review by kdrmbroms
Zone by Mathias Énard, Charlotte Mandell

4.0

.................I enjoy a challenging read now and again and Zone certainly lives up to that - it is basically a one-night train trip where the narrator ruminates over his 40 years of terror, torture and treachery in the lands bordering the Mediterranean which have been the source of endless conflict in effect since the beginning of civilization, a meditation by a person who doesn't seem to have ever tried to change the course of history in any kind of positive manner until now, rather "going with the flow" even when that meant maiming and killing innocent victims in the "fog of war" and excuse the run-on sentence that I have written because Zone is essentially that - one sentence (with three short breaks) that meander and bend across 500 pages but seriously if you want to have a unique reading experience and have the patience and enjoy learning more than usual about 20th century European, North African and Middle Eastern atrocities, give Zone a try.....................