Amin Maalouf

(Lebanon, 1949) is a journalist, writer and winner of the Prix Goncourt. Since 2011 is has been a member of the Académie Française. Trained as a sociologist and economist he decided at a young age to become a journalist. In 1976 he fled the civil war in his country and settled in France. After the success of his The Crusades through Arab Eyes (1983) he chose to become a full-time writer. Eight of his titles have appeared in the Netherlands so far. In his latest book Les emigrés a historian, much-admired in France, returns to Lebanon to say goodbye to a dying friend. He meets people from his youth who have made other, gruesome decisions. But is he allowed to judge them from his own luxurious position? An intriguing novel which, according to Le Figaro ‘continues to vibrate’. The struggle with his background plays a role in earlier work. In the essay Murdering Identities Maalouf pleads for a multicultural identity.