The Silence of the Choir

AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

A BOOK RIOT BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

WINNER

M?TIS NOVEL PRIZE FOR READERS OF THE CITY OF SAINT-DENIS

THE 2018 SOLIDARITY PRIZE

THE WORLD LITERATURE PRIZE

THE PORTE DOR?E LITERARY PRIZE

"A powerful plea for compassion in the face of hatred." The Guardian

"Sarr points honestly and often brilliantly to the divisions between us...he offers a dozen different ways of seeing not only the other side, but ourselves as well." The New York Times

A symphonic story set in contemporary Sicily, The Silence of the Choir recounts the arrival of seventy-two men, refugees, in the small town of Altino and the impact of their arrival on the town and its inhabitants. Here is a collective encounter with The Other, a modern "anthology" of lived experience that addresses the most urgent questions of our day, an important, entertaining, absorbing novel by one of contemporary fiction's most exciting new voices.

"In this ambitious novel...Sarr moves adroitly between the viewpoints of a wide cast of characters." The New Yorker