Older Brother

by Mahir Guven, Tina Kover (Translator)

Overview

Prix Goncourt Winner: A "superb" novel of a Syrian immigrant in France and his two sons (The New York Times Book Review).
Older Brother is the poignant story of a Franco-Syrian family whose father and two sons try to integrate themselves into a society that doesn't offer them many opportunities.
The father, an atheist communist who moved from Syria to France for his studies and stayed for love, has worked for decades driving a taxi to support his family. The eldest son is a driver for an app-based car service, which comically puts him at odds with his father, whose very livelihood is threatened by this new generation of disruptors. The younger son, shy and serious, works as a nurse in a French hospital. Jaded by the regular rejections he encounters in French society, he decides to join a Muslim humanitarian organization to help wounded civilians in the war in Syria. But when he stops sending news home, the silence begins to eat away at his father and brother, who wonder what his real motivations were. And when the younger brother returns home, he has changed . . .
"A masterpiece of a first novel." —The Guardian
"A striking debut that reveals the breadth of emotional disconnection that prejudice can stoke within a family." —Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609455507
Publisher:	Europa Editions, Incorporated
Publication date:	03/23/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	222
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Mahir Guven was born in 1986 in Nantes, the stateless child of refugees, his mother from Turkey and his Kurdish father from Iraq. He grew up with his grandmother between the city and vineyards. Older Brother, his first novel, was awarded the Goncourt First Novel Prize in 2018.

Tina Kover's translations for Europa include Négar Djavadi's National Book Award-shortlisted novel, Disoriental, Anna Gavalda's Life, Only Better, and The Little Girl on the Ice Floe by Adélaïde Bon. Kover is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship for the translation of Manette Salomon by the Goncourt brothers.

Editorial Reviews

Older Brother, the superb debut novel by Mahir Guven…may be a story from the city's outer margins, but it's one that goes to the heart of questions roiling contemporary France…The brothers…trade off as narrators, though the older one propels the story. His voice, expertly translated by Tina Kover, is wry, jaded, insouciant…Guven was born in Nantes, the son of refugees, and worked as a journalist. He has a reporter's knack for balancing a chorus of perspectives about everything from France's economic tumult to its charged relationship with immigration. His book…accomplishes what the best kind of reporting can do: wade into questions that resist simple answers, while restoring dignity to its characters.

The New York Times Book Review - Joumana Khatib

Praise for Older Brother

“Superb.”—The New York Times Review of Books

“A masterpiece of a first novel.”—The Guardian

“A winning debut.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“A striking debut that reveals the breadth of emotional disconnection that prejudice can stoke within a family.”—Kirkus Reviews

“One of the most astute international debuts of the year.”—Shelf Awareness

“In this powerful first novel, written in evocative language, Mahir Guven tells a story from within the very heart of our society, beset by the demons of Uberization and terrorism.” —Le courier de l’Atlas

“For his literary debut, Mahir Guven gives readers 300 high-flying pages.” —Le Figaro

“With the ambivalent sentiments of this pair of brothers alienated by two systems at its core, this first novel is gripping, illuminating, but also funny. It is a call to renew the dream for all those who set foot on French soil.” —L’Obs

“Truly noteworthy. Guven’s fine humor and excellent storytelling are on full display. Older Brother will make you laugh, make you question some of your assumptions, and, for many readers, will it will prove to be an encounter with a world not their own.”—Nathalie Iris, Mots en marge bookstore in La Garenne-Colombes, France

From the Publisher

2019-07-15
A tale of two French brothers of Syrian descent, one struggling as a rideshare driver, the other back in the Middle East on a (maybe) humanitarian mission.

Guven's first book, winner of the 2017 Prix Goncourt for a debut novel, is a sharp prodigal-son tale about life on the margins outside of Paris. The "older brother" of the title has grown wise to the ways Muslims like himself are treated in a suburb he calls "the dump of France," scraping out a living as an Uber driver and occasional police informant, roles that leave him feeling exploited; but his father, a widower and old-line taxi driver, feels that anything is better than his native Syria, which tends to stoke rants about civil war and religion. The "younger brother," a hospital nurse, has disappeared to the Middle East, "likely right there with the lunatics, at war, on his way to death." The younger brother weighs in on his fate in alternating chapters, explaining how his urge to make use of his medical skills brought him into, yes, Syria, where he works as a field medic supporting rebels against Bashar al-Assad's regime. The younger brother is also disillusioned with France, where, despite the inclusive rhetoric after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Muslims are "less-than-zeros in a society that teaches about equality and tolerance and respect," and Guven's novel is largely an exploration of how a shared fury at marginalization can play out in a variety of ways. Kover's translation highlights the brothers' differing temperaments: The older one's street-wise, sarcastic, and jaded, the younger's more naïve but spiritually righteous. The older brother suspects the younger has returned, prompting his concern that he's been radicalized. Guven withholds whether that surmise is correct, giving the novel a thriller-ish vibe in its closing pages, but at heart it's a contemplative story about what siblings owe each other.

A striking debut that reveals the breadth of emotional disconnection that prejudice can stoke within a family.

Kirkus Reviews