Nominated as a writer who straddles various sides of difficult cultural divides, and is thereby able to introduce his readers to multi-perspectivity and to sensitize them to paying attention to the voice of the “other.”
Amin Maalouf, born 25 February 1949 in Beirut, is a Lebanese-born French Christian author. Has lived in France since 1976. 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). He has also been awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in its 2010 edition. He was elected at the Académie française on 23 June 2011, on seat 29. Maalouf is the first Lebanese inducted as an academy immortal. He filled the vacant member seat of the late Claude Levi-Strauss, French anthropologist and ethnologist.
Maalouf’s first book, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, examines the period from an Arab perspective. 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. Besides novels, he has written two opera librettos and several works on non-fiction, of which 'Crusades through Arab Eyes' is probably the best known. In 2010 he received the Prince of Asturias Award laureate for Letters for his work, an intense mix of suggestive language, historic affairs in a Mediterranean mosaic of languages, cultures and religions and stories of tolerance and reconciliation.
Maalouf has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), the University of Tarragona Rovira i Virgili (Spain) and the University of Evora (Portugal).
Winning the Prix Goncourt
Francois Nourrissier, president of the Goncourt jury, said Maalouf was awarded the prize for his novel Le rocher de Tanios (The Tanios Rock), set in 19th-century Lebanon. The Goncourt pays a token $9 but guarantees the winner additional sales of up to 500,000 copies and media fame. Maalouf, whose book is published by Grasset, won the prize by six votes to two to Michel Braudeau, author of Pierrot mon ami (My Friend Pierrot). [8]
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[9]
- 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, oratorio, composer Kaija Saariaho 2006
- Émilie (opera), composer Kaija Saariaho 2010
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
- Le Dérèglement du monde : Quand nos civilisations s’épuisent, Grasset, 2009 (ISBN 978-2-246-68151-9)
