Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants #

Mathias Énard #

January 15, 2022

4/5

I really enjoyed this book. It was, most of the time, an incredibly calming book that I found much enjoyment out of, which was surprising for me because I found it incredibly randomly. I discovered this book, mostly through its book cover, which was designed by the fantastic Peter Mendelsund. I happened to find the blurb on the book really interesting, and wasn’t able to find much about it online, outside of some book reviews. Which immediately made me interested.

The book is rather not that long, and many of the “chapters” are less than a page long. I say “chapter”, because the book doesn’t really have chapters in its normal sense, in fact, they are rather more like broken up processes of thought or a change in viewpoints.

The prose is wonderful, and I frequently found myself very comforted by the way that Énard writes. It is a form of writing that I cannot describe, or truly give any life to, but it was fantastic. To me, it really captured a sense of calm and peace, which when mixed with the setting of Constantinople, really made me feel at home. I have not felt this relaxed when reading a novel in a long time.

(Potential spoilers ahead.) The only downside to this book in my mind is the ending, which I found to be a bit sudden, unexpected, and blocky. It may be perfectly acceptable to some, but I found it a bit too jarring when compared to the rest of the book.

Overall, I found this to be an absolutely fantastic and lovely book, with a few chips in the glaze. I would recommend this strongly to anybody who wants a calming, relaxing book that is quite thoughtful nonetheless. I look forward to reading more from Mathias Énard in the future!