Le Rocher de Tanios

Prix Goncourt 1993. After Léon l’Africain, Samarcande and Les Jardins de lumière, Amin Maalouf — born in Lebanon and settled in France since 1976 — continued with Le Rocher de Tanios his exploration of the bridges between East and West.

The novel draws on a nineteenth-century Lebanese legend: that of a child born of adultery who witnesses the murder of a sheikh before being forced into exile. Through this singular destiny, Maalouf unfolds a vast historical and symbolic fresco of a Lebanon already riven by clan struggles, sectarian rivalries and foreign interference. The Goncourt jury, then chaired by Françoise Mallet-Joris, unanimously praised a novel added to the lists at the last minute, for its “classical clarity and universal scope.”

With this prize, Maalouf established himself as one of the great voices of the French-speaking world, before being elected to the Académie française in 2011, where he now serves as Perpetual Secretary.