Amin Maalouf

Alec, a press artist with an impressive track record, settles on a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean. He has little contact with his neighbor, a solitary woman who wrote a cult book years ago, before withdrawing from public life. That is, until a gigantic power failure cuts them off from the rest of the world, and all of a sudden they find themselves dependent on each other. The world appears to be on the brink of nuclear war and the collapse of civilization seems imminent. Just who are the mysterious friends of Empedocles, the gang of otherworldly protectors who came swooping in to interfere with the US presidency and cure all illness? Should we trust them? On the Isle of Antioch is a suspenseful novel with mythological roots, written in the dreamy language of the classics, by internationally renowned scholar Amin Maalouf.

Stijena Tanios još je jedan izniman roman koji istražuje mitove i strasti libanonske prošlosti. Znalacki kontrolirajuci višestranu naraciju velike ljepote i snage, Maalouf ispisuje povijest jednog neobicnog života: života Taniosova, djeteta planina.

A big, exquisite novel about friendship, betrayal, nostalgia, culture, politics, and beliefs.

Pitkän linjan kirjailija ja lehtimies analysoi laajassa esseessään, miksi ihmiskunta on mennyt harhaan. Miksi ihmisoikeuksista ja tasa-arvosta on tullut pelkkiä korulauseita? Miksi talouden ja lääketieteen edistysaskeleet eivät ole tuoneet hyvinvointia kaikille? Ja miksi henkinen pimeys tuntuu lähteneen liikkeelle juuri Lähi-idästä?

The bestselling author of The Crusades Through Arab Eyes traces how civilizations have drifted apart throughout the 20th century and now lack the solidarity to address global threats to humankind. "Maalouf is a thoughtful, humane and passionate interlocutor." -- The New York Times Book Review The United States is losing its moral credibility. The European Union is breaking apart. Africa, the Arab world, and the Mediterranean are becoming battlefields for various regional and global powers. Extreme forms of nationalism are on the rise. Thus divided, humanity is unable to address global threats to the environment and our health. How did we get here and what is yet to come? World-renowned scholar and bestselling author Amin Maalouf seeks to raise awareness and pursue a new human solidarity. In Adrift, Maalouf traces how civilizations have drifted apart throughout the 20th century, mixing personal narrative and historical analysis to provide a warning signal for the future.

Breathtaking analysis of the current global crisis from one of the Arab world's most respected writers

One night, a phone rings in Paris. Adam learns that Mourad, once his closest friend, is dying. He quickly throws some clothes in a suitcase and takes the first flight out, to the homeland he fled twenty-five years ago. Exiled in France, Adam has been leading a peaceful life as a respected historian, but back among the milk-white mountains of the East his past soon catches up with him. His childhood friends have all taken different paths in life — and some now have blood on their hands. Loyalty, identity, and the clash of cultures and beliefs are at the core of this long-awaited novel by the French-Lebanese literary giant Amin Maalouf.'Maalouf is a thoughtful, humane and passionate interlocutor.' — The New York Times Book Review'A thoughtful, philosophically rich story that probes a still-open wound. An exile returns home to a land still torn apart by civil war 25 years afterward. Think The Big Chill in Beirut with some of the sex but little of the lightheartedness in Jeune Afrique editor-in-chief Maalouf's charged novel.' — Kirkus Reviews'Having moved from Beirut to Paris with the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War, the Prix Goncourt–winning Maalouf (The Rock of Tanios) deftly lets us know how the changes wrought by time's passage really feel, especially when one has traded continents and cultures.' — ALA Booklist'Amin Maalouf gives us a perfect look at the thoughts and feelings that can lead to emigration. One can only be impressed by the magnitude and the precision of his introspection.' — Le Monde des Livres'A great work, which explores the wounds of the exile and the compromises of those who stay.' — L'Amour des Livres

I Amin Maaloufs nye roman blir eksilforfatteren Adam oppringt i Paris av sin gamle bestevenn Mourad, som ligger for døden i Libanon. Adam har ikke vært hjemme på 26 år, men reiser straks av sted for å treffe vennen - men er for sent ute. Han bestemmer seg derfor i stedet for å prøve å samle resten av den gamle vennegjengen han ikke har sett på så lenge. De har alle gjort svært forskjellige valg og er spredt over store deler av verden: en jobber for Pentagon i USA, en er blitt mangemillionr i Jordan, en har gjort karriere i Brasil, en er blitt munk - og en er blitt radikal islamist. Romanen er en av Maalous mest personlige. Den har fått en svært god mottakelse, og regnes som en av hans aller beste. Maalouf tar tak i kjente problemstillinger fra forfatterskapet: eksil, identitet, kulturforskjeller, rett og galt, og forsøkene på å bygge bro mellom øst og vest, og kombinerer dem i en velskrevet, lett tilgjengelig og tankevekkende fortelling om livsvalg og vennskap.

‘We are, and always will be, wanderers who have lost their way . . .’ When a trunk of family letters gives Amin Maalouf the opportunity to trace his past, he finds himself – having never before asked questions – transfixed by the stories of his ancestors. Starting in the mountains of Lebanon and taking him across the sea to Havana, his history is one of restlessness and exile: of the search for identity, of dramatic emigrations, and of revolutions espoused in the dying years of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. The result is an exquisite memoir, a book that finds drama in the most personal of tales, pathos in the grandest of gestures, and an understanding that the most nomadic of families can also epitomize home. ‘Origins is many things: an introduction to Lebanon’s complex history, the end of Ottoman Empire through Arab eyes, and an intimate account of diasporic identity. Exquisitely tempered’ Independent ‘Maalouf’s far-seeing and hospitable worldview is presided over, like that of his grandfather, by “the angel of reason”, and in Origins he tells a story he has painstakingly salvaged just in time’ Daily Telegraph ‘Maalouf has a novelist’s ear for language and an historian’s eye for detail: they have combined to create a masterpiece which can only help to further understanding of our complicated times’ Tablet