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
Works of non-fiction
External links
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