ALLemaGNETraduction de Maja Ueberle-Pfaff
Sam Tahar ist ein renommierter und wohlhabend gewordener Anwalt. Sein Erfolg aber beruht auf einem Betrug. Sam hat rücksichtslos das Leben seines besten Freundes und dessen Lebensgefährtin, einem Mannequin, ausgebeutet. Die Geschichte dieses Trios liegt 20 Jahre zurück. Bei einem zufälligen Aufeinandertreffen wird der Anwalt von seiner Vergangenheit eingeholt. 2013 mit dem Prix Lauriers verts de la forêt des livres ausgezeichnet. |
Pays-basTraduction Jan Pieter van der Sterre
Het lijkt Sam Tahar aan niets te ontbreken: hij heeft een glansrijke carrière bij een prestigieus advocatenkantoor in New York, veel geld, aandacht van de media en een goed huwelijk. Maar zijn succes berust op bedrog. Om zijn kans op een goede baan te vergroten heeft de van oorsprong Arabische Samir twintig jaar geleden zijn naam in sollicitatiebrieven afgekort tot Sam. Toen dat direct tot een mooie betrekking leidde, besloot hij zichzelf een compleet andere identiteit aan te meten en de joodse afkomst van zijn voormalige beste vriend Samuel te lenen. Terwijl Samirs ster daarna rees, bleef Samuel een marginaal bestaan leiden in een roerige Parijse buitenwijk, waar hij vergeefs probeerde als schrijver aan de bak te komen. Wel is hij nog altijd samen met Nina, die destijds heeft gekozen voor hem en niet voor Samir. Maar als het drietal elkaar na twintig jaar weer ontmoet, is er ruimte voor andere keuzes. De levens van Samir, Samuel en Nina komen onder hoogspanning te staan, wat uiteindelijk leidt tot een dramatische ontknoping. In deze spannende psychologische roman laat Karine Tuil zien wat de grenzen zijn van menselijke maakbaarheid. Ingenieus wordt een ongewone driehoeksverhouding vervlochten met de grote maatschappelijke vraagstukken van onze tijd. |
italieTraduction de Marina Karam
L'ambizione è la più forte delle droghe, e la più distruttiva. Sam Tahar ne ha fatto la sua religione: ed è riuscito a diventare uno degli avvocati più famosi di New York e a vivere nel lusso sposando una donna ricchissima. Insomma, potrebbe finalmente dirsi arrivato. Eppure c'è una nota stonata nella sua disperata, affannosa ricerca del successo. Perché Sam, per arrivare fin lì, ha scelto di cancellare qualcosa di sé. Ad esempio, il suo amore, vent'anni prima, a Parigi, per Nina, l'unica vera donna della sua vita; o l'amicizia più importante, quella con Samuel, finita proprio a causa di Nina. Ma, soprattutto, Sam ha scelto di cancellare la propria identità: le sue origini arabe, e il suo vero nome, Samir, facendosi chiamare «Sam» – proprio come l'amico di un tempo. E quando i tre, Samir, Samuel e Nina, per una serie di imprevedibili circostanze, si incontreranno di nuovo, tutto esploderà – le verità, le menzogne, le apparenze – in un cortocircuito magnifico e stridente tra vite vere e vite inventate, che rischierà di far crollare il fragile castello di bugie costruito negli anni da Samir. Karine Tuil dipinge un grande affresco dei nostri tempi, in un romanzo dal passo classico, la commedia umana di una società sempre più bugiarda in cui non c'è limite all'ambizione, alla voglia di apparire, e al potere della menzogna. E in cui, più che mai, a definirci sono le persone che decidiamo di amare, ma anche quelle che scegliamo di lasciare indietro. |
Etats-unis
Translated by Sam Taylor
An international bestseller and finalist for the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary award, The Age of Reinvention is a suspenseful Gatsbian tale of a famous New York lawyer whose charmed and glamorous life is a sham. "With a lie you can go very far, but you can never go back." –Anonymous Proverb Elite Manhattan criminal defense attorney Sam Tahar seems to have it all: fame, fortune, good looks, an enviable marriage to a prominent socialite, and two wonderful children. But his life is a house of cards; everything that he has achieved stems from a single lie he told in a moment of weakness. Because Sam Tahar isn’t who he pretends to be. He grew up Samir Tahar, born into a poor Muslim family crammed inside a grimy Paris apartment tower, destined for a life on the margins, until one day he decided destiny would not have its way with him. “He was going to cut through the bars of his social jail cell, even if he had to do it with his teeth.” Samir clawed his way to law school, where he became fast friends with Jewish student Samuel Baron. The two were inseparable until the alluring Nina, torn between the men, ultimately chose Samuel, the weaker of the two. Determined as ever to make something of himself, Samir left for America, chopped off the last two letters of his name and adopted Samuel’s life story and origins for his own. His former friend remained stuck in a French suburb, a failed, neurotic writer seething at Samir’s triumphs, still bound to an increasingly resentful Nina. Twenty years later, the three meet again. Now, all their fates hang in the balance as their tangled love triangle collides headlong with the complex realities of life at the start of the twenty-first century. Called “a masterful novel...unquestionably one of the season’s best” (Paris Match) and “a work of great magnitude” (Le Figaro),The Age of Reinvention is an intriguing, vital, darkly humorous tale about the wonderful possibilities and terrible costs of becoming someone else. |
royaume-uni
Elite Manhattan criminal defense attorney Sam Tahar seems to have it all: fame, fortune, good looks, an enviable marriage to a prominent socialite, and two wonderful children. But his life is a house of cards; everything that he has achieved stems from a single lie he told in a moment of weakness. Because Sam Tahar isn’t who he pretends to be. He grew up Samir Tahar, born into a poor Muslim family crammed inside a grimy Paris apartment tower, destined for a life on the margins, until one day he decided destiny would not have its way with him. “He was going to cut through the bars of his social jail cell, even if he had to do it with his teeth.” Samir clawed his way to law school, where he became fast friends with Jewish student Samuel Baron. The two were inseparable until the alluring Nina, torn between the men, ultimately chose Samuel, the weaker of the two. Determined as ever to make something of himself, Samir left for America, chopped off the last two letters of his name and adopted Samuel’s life story and origins for his own. His former friend remained stuck in a French suburb, a failed, neurotic writer seething at Samir’s triumphs, still bound to an increasingly resentful Nina.
Twenty years later, the three meet again. Now, all their fates hang in the balance as their tangled love triangle collides headlong with the complex realities of life at the start of the twenty-first century. Called “a masterful novel...unquestionably one of the season’s best” (Paris Match) and “a work of great magnitude” (Le Figaro),The Age of Reinvention is an intriguing, vital, darkly humorous tale about the wonderful possibilities and terrible costs of becoming someone else. |
grèceElite Manhattan criminal defense attorney Sam Tahar seems to have it all: fame, fortune, good looks, an enviable marriage to a prominent socialite, and two wonderful children. But his life is a house of cards; everything that he has achieved stems from a single lie he told in a moment of weakness. Because Sam Tahar isn’t who he pretends to be. He grew up Samir Tahar, born into a poor Muslim family crammed inside a grimy Paris apartment tower, destined for a life on the margins, until one day he decided destiny would not have its way with him. “He was going to cut through the bars of his social jail cell, even if he had to do it with his teeth.”
Samir clawed his way to law school, where he became fast friends with Jewish student Samuel Baron. The two were inseparable until the alluring Nina, torn between the men, ultimately chose Samuel, the weaker of the two. Determined as ever to make something of himself, Samir left for America, chopped off the last two letters of his name and adopted Samuel’s life story and origins for his own. His former friend remained stuck in a French suburb, a failed, neurotic writer seething at Samir’s triumphs, still bound to an increasingly resentful Nina. Twenty years later, the three meet again. Now, all their fates hang in the balance as their tangled love triangle collides headlong with the complex realities of life at the start of the twenty-first century. Called “a masterful novel...unquestionably one of the season’s best” (Paris Match) and “a work of great magnitude” (Le Figaro),The Age of Reinvention is an intriguing, vital, darkly humorous tale about the wonderful possibilities and terrible costs of becoming someone else. |
chineElite Manhattan criminal defense attorney Sam Tahar seems to have it all: fame, fortune, good looks, an enviable marriage to a prominent socialite, and two wonderful children. But his life is a house of cards; everything that he has achieved stems from a single lie he told in a moment of weakness. Because Sam Tahar isn’t who he pretends to be. He grew up Samir Tahar, born into a poor Muslim family crammed inside a grimy Paris apartment tower, destined for a life on the margins, until one day he decided destiny would not have its way with him. “He was going to cut through the bars of his social jail cell, even if he had to do it with his teeth.”
Samir clawed his way to law school, where he became fast friends with Jewish student Samuel Baron. The two were inseparable until the alluring Nina, torn between the men, ultimately chose Samuel, the weaker of the two. Determined as ever to make something of himself, Samir left for America, chopped off the last two letters of his name and adopted Samuel’s life story and origins for his own. His former friend remained stuck in a French suburb, a failed, neurotic writer seething at Samir’s triumphs, still bound to an increasingly resentful Nina. Twenty years later, the three meet again. Now, all their fates hang in the balance as their tangled love triangle collides headlong with the complex realities of life at the start of the twenty-first century. Called “a masterful novel...unquestionably one of the season’s best” (Paris Match) and “a work of great magnitude” (Le Figaro),The Age of Reinvention is an intriguing, vital, darkly humorous tale about the wonderful possibilities and terrible costs of becoming someone else. |