Almost immediately after its publication in May 2024, Claire Messud's This Strange Eventful History received buzz as a potential award winner. Messud's novel is set over the course of seventy years, from 1940 to 2010. It follows the pieds-noirs Cassars, an ethnic group of French people born in Algeria. The novel begins in the 1940s at the height of World War II, which displaces the Cassars from their homeland, leading them on a decades-long quest to settle down and find a place of their own. The novel follows a number of Cassars, including François and Denise and Gaston and Lucienne, as they navigate their interpersonal drama, navigating other cultures, and finding a home once and for all. Largely autobiographical in nature, the novel draws on Messud's lengthy family history and their experiences.
This Strange Eventful History was quickly longlisted for the Booker prize, which is awarded to the worlds best novels. In their largely positive review of the novel, The New York Times called it "a risky but solid structure, ambitiously packed with material." They opined that Messud's gamble in terms of structure ultimately paid off in the end, creating a great book.
