Amin Maalouf

Amin Maalouf
Amin Maalouf, 2009
Born	25 February 1949 (1949-02-25) (age 60) Beirut, Lebanon
Occupation	Novelist
Notable work(s)	Leo the African, Rock of Tanios, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, and Samarkand

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

Biography

Maalouf is the second of four children. His parents' families were from the Lebanese mountain village of Ain el Kabou. His parents 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".^{[citation needed]} 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 a French Jesuit school. He studied sociology at the French University in Beirut (Université Saint-Joseph).

He worked as the director of the Beirut-based daily newspaper An-Nahar until the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, when he moved to Paris, which became his permanent home.

Works of fiction

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

• Leo Africanus ISBN 1-56131-022-0
• Samarkand ISBN 1-56656-293-7
• The First Century after Beatrice ISBN 0-7043-7051-4
• The Rock of Tanios (Prix Goncourt 1993) ISBN 0-8076-1365-7^[1]
• The 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 (English translation of Les Croisades vues par les Arabes), 1986. ISBN 0-8052-0898-4
• In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong (English translation of Les Identités meurtrières, 1998; translated by Barbara Bray, 2000. ISBN 0-14-200257-7
• Origins: A Memoir (FSG, 2008)[1] 1st edition 2004 winner of the Prix Mediterranee 2004^{[citation needed]}

References

• Jaggi, Maya (November 16, 2002). "Profile: A Son of the Road". The Guardian. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,840987,00.html. Retrieved November 29, 2009. 

External links

• Amin Maalouf blog
• Amin Maalouf Site
• Amin Maalouf Website

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