On a mission to capture and interrogate a corrupt American soldier, a spy meets a woman trying to save as many cultural artifacts from desecration as she can. Hear Our Defeats is a novel about the battles that define us. The battles lost, won, and those still being fought.
A French intelligence officer, Assem, is tasked with tracking down a former member of the U.S. Special Forces suspected of drug trafficking during the War in Afghanistan. En route to Beirut he shares a night with Miriam, an Iraqi archaeologist, who is in a race against time to save ancient artifacts across the Middle East from the terrorist group ISIS.
Punctuating these two storylines are vignettes from the bellicose past, including: Hannibal's failed march on Rome and the burning of his fleet on the waters of the Mediterranean; Grant's pursuit of the Confederates into rural Virginia; Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomatox Courthouse; and Emperor Haile Selassie's exile from his country of Ethiopia. All turning points in world history, each showing a will to continue in the face of defeat.
Author Biography
Laurent Gaude is a French novelist and playwright. After being nominated for the 2002 Prix Concourt with The Death of King Tsongor, he won the award in 2004 for his novel The Sun of the Scorta.
Alison Anderson's translations for Europa Editions include novels by Selim Nassib, Amelie Nothomb, and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. She is the translator of The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Europa, 2008) and The Life of Elves (Europa, 2016) by Muriel Barbery.
