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Origins: A Memoir

Origins: A Memoir

by Amin Maalouf (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2008

    $3.25
Synopsis

'We are, and always will be, wanderers who have lost their way ...' A prolific novelist and acclaimed historian of the Middle East, Amin Maalouf had never before taken the time to trace his own ancestry. But on the sudden death of his father he decides to address this, and, given a trunk of letters and the opportunity to sort them, begins to find the keys to his past. Like many Levantine families, Maalouf's is ethnically and religiously diverse, and the figures he encounters are maverick, visionary, strong-willed, far-flung. Starting in the mountains of Lebanon, their story is yet one of exile: of brothers separated, of dramatic emigrations, and of revolutions espoused in the dying years of the Ottoman Empire and beyond.Taking Maalouf from Lebanon to Cuba, this memoir is a fascinating insight into the nature and fate of a nomadic family. Above all, it is a meditation on the profound extent to which blood ties can represent homeland, and to which curiosity, guilt, love and pride can echo through the generations. 'What do you get when one of the Arab world's greatest writers, a Prix-Goncourt-winning historical novelist, decides to write a memoir? A marvel' - Rabih Alameddine.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 480
 Publisher: Picador
Published: 05 Sep 2008
ISBN 10: 0330442481
ISBN 13: 9780330442480

Media Reviews
Maalouf's novels re-create the thrill of childhood reading, that primitive mixture of learning about something unknown or unimagined. --Claire Messud, The Guardian Praise for Amin Maalouf What do you get when one of the Arab world's greatest writers, a Prix-Goncourt-winning historical novelist, decides to write a memoir? A marvel. Amin Maalouf has given us the engrossing story of his grandfather, a prescient, remarkable man, as well as the story of his time and place--how the Middle East was formed, politically, geographically, historically, and not least, psychologically. An extraordinary achievement. --Rabih Alameddine, author of The Hakawati

Maalouf's novels re-create the thrill of childhood reading, that primitive mixture of learning about something unknown or unimagined . . . --Claire Messud, The Guardian

One of the best European writers to have emerged in the last decade. -- Kirkus Reviews

Maalouf skillfully weaves the threads of contemporary history into his fictional narratives . . . In each of his books, he takes a historical figure about whom few facts are known, puts him in the context of this time and place and adds a myriad of invented but historically plausible details. The finished portraits have the intricate richness of oriental tapestries. -- International Herald Tribune

What is common to Maalouf's wide-ranging works--six of his novels have been translated into English--is his apparent belief that through examining and understanding a particular historical period we can gain a better understanding of our present time. Indeed, if you want to understand what's going on in the world at this moment, you could certainly do worse than to readMaalouf on the past. --Ian


Praise for Amin Maalouf What do you get when one of the Arab world's greatest writers, a Prix-Goncourt-winning historical novelist, decides to write a memoir? A marvel. Amin Maalouf has given us the engrossing story of his grandfather, a prescient, remarkable man, as well as the story of his time and place--how the Middle East was formed, politically, geographically, historically, and not least, psychologically. An extraordinary achievement. --Rabih Alameddine, author of The Hakawati

Maalouf's novels re-create the thrill of childhood reading, that primitive mixture of learning about something unknown or unimagined . . . --Claire Messud, The Guardian

One of the best European writers to have emerged in the last decade. -- Kirkus Reviews

Maalouf skillfully weaves the threads of contemporary history into his fictional narratives . . . In each of his books, he takes a historical figure about whom few facts are known, puts him in the context of this time and place and adds a myriad of invented but historically plausible details. The finished portraits have the intricate richness of oriental tapestries. -- International Herald Tribune

What is common to Maalouf's wide-ranging works--six of his novels have been translated into English--is his apparent belief that through examining and understanding a particular historical period we can gain a better understanding of our present time. Indeed, if you want to understand what's going on in the world at this moment, you could certainly do worse than to read Maalouf on the past. --Ian Sansom, The Guardian


Praise for Amin Maalouf and Origins
This memoir illuminates the way we make narrative out of pieces of fact and rumor and also serves as a revealing glimpse into the complexities of a part of the world to which nationhood came late and where borders remain unusually porous and slippery . . . A journey well worth taking, an elegant meditation on mortality and our relationship to the past. -- The Washington Post In this riveting and intriguing memoir, he describes himself and his family as a rather nomadic clan, without deep emotional ties to place or religious affiliation...The result is an excellent family saga that also works as a mystery and even as a discourse on the political culture of Lebanon. Maalouf is a gifted writer; he has a knack for maintaining dramatic tension as he reveals his efforts to uncover his family's secrets, layer by layer, as his search extends over three continents. This is an intensely personal and compelling story. --Jay Freeman, Booklist
Maalouf's narrative gains in emotional immediacy from its lack of the polished presentation often found in memoirs...His kins' reactions to tragedies and triumphs both personal and universal add to the book's vibrant texture and tone. A shimmering portrait of a clan molded by history and personal whim. -- Kirkus Reviews
What do you get when one of the Arab world's greatest writers, a Prix-Goncourt-winning historical novelist, decides to write a memoir? A marvel. Amin Maalouf has given us the engrossing story of his grandfather, a prescient, remarkable man, as well as the story of his time and place--how the Middle East was formed, politically, geographically, historically, and not least, psychologically.An extraordinary achievement. --Rabih Alameddine, author of The Hakawati

Maalouf's novels re-create the thrill of childhood reading, that primitive mixture of learning about something unknown or unimagined . . . --Claire Messud, The Guardian

One of the best European writers to have emerged in the last decade. -- Kirkus Reviews

Maalouf skillfully weaves the threads of contemporary history into his fictional narratives . . . In each of his books, he takes a historical figure about whom few facts are known, puts him in the context of this time and place and adds a myriad of invented but historically plausible details. The finished portraits have the intricate richness of oriental tapestries. -- International Herald Tribune

What is common to Maalouf's wide-ranging works--six of his novels have been translated into English--is his apparent belief that through examining and understanding a particular historical period we can gain a better understanding of our present time. Indeed, if you want to understand what's going on in the world at this moment, you could certainly do worse than to read Maalouf on the past. --Ian Sansom, The Guardian


Praise for Amin Maalouf and Origins
Maalouf doesn't only want to illuminate family history or amplify stories barely whispered for a hundred years; instead, he strives to reveal the fecund variety of his own family, of Arab life and history, of history itself. In doing so, he offers a lesson in the value of impermanence and shifting sands . . . Maalouf wants nothing more than to unwind the long scarf of memory and history, not to make a claim, but in celebration of human dignity, endeavor and 'wanderers who have lost their way.' He is one of that small handful of writers, like David Grossman and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who are indispensable to us in our current crisis. --Jonathan Wilson, The New York Times Book Review This memoir illuminates the way we make narrative out of pieces of fact and rumor and also serves as a revealing glimpse into the complexities of a part of the world to which nationhood came late and where borders remain unusually porous and slippery . . . A journey well worth taking, an elegant meditation on mortality and our relationship to the past. -- The Washington Post In this riveting and intriguing memoir, he describes himself and his family as a rather nomadic clan, without deep emotional ties to place or religious affiliation...The result is an excellent family saga that also works as a mystery and even as a discourse on the political culture of Lebanon. Maalouf is a gifted writer; he has a knack for maintaining dramatic tension as he reveals his efforts to uncover his family's secrets, layer by layer, as his search extends over three continents. This is an intensely personal and compelling story. --Jay Freeman, Booklist
Maalouf's narrative gains inemotional immediacy from its lack of the polished presentation often found in memoirs...His kins' reactions to tragedies and triumphs both personal and universal add to the book's vibrant texture and tone. A shimmering portrait of a clan molded by history and personal whim. -- Kirkus Reviews
What do you get when one of the Arab world's greatest writers, a Prix-Goncourt-winning historical novelist, decides to write a memoir? A marvel. Amin Maalouf has given us the engrossing story of his grandfather, a prescient, remarkable man, as well as the story of his time and place--how the Middle East was formed, politically, geographically, historically, and not least, psychologically. An extraordinary achievement. --Rabih Alameddine, author of The Hakawati

Maalouf's novels re-create the thrill of childhood reading, that primitive mixture of learning about something unknown or unimagined . . . --Claire Messud, The Guardian

One of the best European writers to have emerged in the last decade. -- Kirkus Reviews

Maalouf skillfully weaves the threads of contemporary history into his fictional narratives . . . In each of his books, he takes a historical figure about whom few facts are known, puts him in the context of this time and place and adds a myriad of invented but historically plausible details. The finished portraits have the intricate richness of oriental tapestries. -- International Herald Tribune

What is common to Maalouf's wide-ranging works--six of his novels have been translated into English--is his apparent belief that through examining and understanding a particular historical period we can gain a better understanding of our present time. Indeed, if youwant to understand what's going on in the world at this moment, you could certainly do worse than to read Maalouf on the past. --Ian Sansom, The Guardian

Author Bio
Born in Lebanon in 1949, Amin Maalouf made his home in Paris in 1976, shortly after the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war. He has published seven novels as well as journalism, essays, and works of history. His fifth novel, The Rock of Tanios (1993), won the Prix Goncourt. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages.