Amin Maalouf

Amin Maalouf (Arabic: أمين معلوف), born 25 February, 1949 in Beirut, is a Lebanese author. He writes in French, and his works have been translated into many languages. He received the Prix Goncourt in 1993 for his novel Rock of Tanios.

He was the second of four children. His parents' families were from the Lebanese mountain village of Ain el Kabou. They had married in Cairo in 1945, where Odette, his mother, was born of a Maronite Christian father from the village, who had left to work in Egypt, and a mother born in Turkey. Amin's father, Ruchdi, was from the Melkite Greek Catholic community. One of his ancestors was a priest whose son converted to become a Presbyterian parson. The parson's son (Maalouf's grandfather) was a "rationalist, anticlerical, probably a freemason, and refused to baptise his children". While the Protestant branch of the family sent their children to British or American schools, Maalouf's mother was a staunch Catholic who insisted on sending him to French Jesuit school. He studied sociology at the French University in Beirut.He worked as the former director of the Beirut daily an-Nahar in Beirut until the start of the civil war in 1975, when he moved to Paris as a refugee. He still lives there today.

Maalouf's novels are marked by his experiences of civil war and migration. Their characters are itinerant voyagers between lands, languages, and religions.

Works of fiction

• The First Century after Beatrice ISBN 0-7043-7051-4
• Leo Africanus ISBN 1-56131-022-0
• Rock of Tanios (Prix Goncourt 1993) ISBN 0-8076-1365-7
• Samarkand (first published 1988 titled 'Samarcande') ISBN 1-56656-293-7
• Gardens of Light ISBN 1-56656-248-1
• Ports of Call (first published 1996 titled 'Les échelles du Levant') ISBN 1-86046-890-X
• Balthasar's Odyssey ISBN 1-55970-702-X

Opera librettos

• L’amour de loin (Love from Afar), composer Kaija Saariaho, 2000
• Adriana Mater, composer Kaija Saariaho 2003
• La Passion de Simone, composer Kaija Saariaho 2006

Works of non-fiction

• The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (Les Croisades vues par les Arabes, 1986) ISBN 0-8052-0898-4
• In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong (Les Identités meurtrières, 1998 ; translated by Barbara Bray, 2000) ISBN 0-14-200257-7

External links

• Amin Maalouf Site
• Interview with The Guardian
• Non Official Site