Origines, Paperback Book, By: Amin Maalouf

When Amin Maalouf learns one day that a chest with documents - letters, diaries and other documents - from his grandfather's estate is being kept in his mother's house in Beirut, he immediately sets off for Lebanon. While still there, he begins reading, which he can hardly let go of. He takes the legacy with him to Paris, arranges the material, draws up directories, and gradually the plan for a book about the history of his family emerges. Originally a nomad tribe from the desert between Syria and Arabia, they immigrated to Lebanon in the 19th century and settled there. Shaped by the patriarchs, especially by the grandfather Botros, it remains deeply rooted in the oriental tradition and at the same time opens up to western influences. Maalouf tells - vividly and full of anecdotes - about the everyday living conditions in the Orient of the last two hundred years, of fanatics and free thinkers, of secret baptisms, of weddings, divorces and funerals, of successful and unsuccessful deals, of the religious controversy in the middle of the family, in their fate that of the country is reflected. About the Author: Amin Maalouf was born in Lebanon in 1949 and has lived in France as a journalist and writer since 1976. He has travelled to over sixty countries and is a recognized specialist in issues relating to the Arab world and relations between the Occident and the Middle East. Amin Maalouf was editor-in-chief of the weekly An Nahar International and Jeune Afrique magazine and was a war correspondent during the Vietnam War and the Islamic Revolution. As a book author, he has already published several novels. In August 2000, the first opera based on a libretto by the author was premiered at the Salzburg Festival (in collaboration with the Finnish composer Kija Saariaho): L'amour de loin. In 1993 he received the Prix Goncourt, in 2010 the prestigious Prince of Asturias Prize in the literature category, and in 2011 the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Award.