Mahmoud or the Rising of the Waters

Antoine Wauters is a Belgian poet and novelist, winner of more than fifteen literary awards. One of the brightest stars in French literature, his writing has received broad critical praise for its stylistic range and for his ability to capture the zeitgeist. The Museum of Contradictions won the Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle and was his first book to be published in English (Selkies House, 2025). Mahmoud or the Rising of the Waters won the Prix du Livre Inter, the Prix Wepler, and the Prix Marguerite Duras. Wauters lives near Theux, Belgium.Stephanie Smee’s translations of contemporary classics have won critical praise and multiple awards. She is the translator of Joseph Ponthus’ award-winning novel in verse, “On The Line, Notes from a Factory”, for which she won the Australian Academy of the Humanities Medal of Excellence in Translation. Her translation of Hannelore Cayre’s “The Godmother” won the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger. She is the winner of the JQ-Wingate Prize for Françoise Frenkel’s “No Place to Lay One's Head”. Smee lives in Sydney, Australia.

“A sumptuous novel in free verse that reaffirms the power of language to describe Evil. All Wauters’ art is about leading this dive without haste. He opposes the acceleration of horror, the precipitation of the worst, with the patient monologue of a man who with his voice alone manages to cobble together a shelter, in the midst of chaos, for life.” —Jean Birnbaum, Monde des livres“A very beautiful book—a very great book—devastating in its beauty and poetry.”—Madame FigaroWauters' writing is “one of the most remarkable in literature.”—Lire magazine