The Rock of Tanios [Hardcover]

Amin Maalouf (Author), Dorothy S. Blair (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1994

An exploration of myth, passion and loyalty from the Lebanon's troubled past, The Rock of Tanios is another superbly rich and rewarding novel from the author of Samarkand and Leo the African. Expertly controlling his multi-faceted narrative with prose of great beauty and power, Maalouf delves into the history of an extraordinary life: that of Tanois, child of the mountains.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At age 15, in 1836, Tanios, the illegitimate son of a Lebanese Catholic sheikh, turns completely white-haired-an omen that he must be a "wise fool," or "old-head," one who appears briefly to redress injustice in troubled times. In this seductive, exotic novel, Maalouf (Leo Africanus) limns a protagonist who is an endearing mixture of precocious maturity and naivete, of remorse and resolve. Tanios's adoptive father, Gerios, the sheikh's servile majordomo, rashly murders a prelate who had lured away Tanios's girlfriend for his own nephew. Terrified, Tanios and Gerios flee to Cyprus, where the wise fool is recruited by an English spymaster in a scheme to topple the Emir, a Middle Eastern tyrant whose agents entrap Gerios and have him hanged. Tanios, who displays last-minute leniency toward the Emir, embodies the spirit of justice tempered by mercy, an alternative to the cycle of revenge and violence that holds a fractious region in its grip; and so he gives modern relevance to a leisurely tale full of intrigue, twists of fate and seedy imperialist jockeying by the French, English, Turks and Egyptians.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Journalist and novelist Maalouf won the 1993 Goncourt Prize for his depiction of social and political turmoil in Lebanon during the 1880s, which is based on a true story. His book concerns not only rapidly changing social ties but also the traditional bonds and customs that are the essential fabric of a culture. Using a refreshing, nearly folkloric style that turns his protagonist, Tanios, into a classic hero, Maalouf details the shifting alliances and international power struggles that follow the murder of a patriarch. As a result, the reader is propelled into the world of myth yet gains a very real sympathy for the vivid characters. Like any good storyteller, Maalouf gives you the facts but also the paradoxes, leaving you with a sense of mystery. Recommended for all libraries with historical fiction collections.
Susan M. Olcott, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 275 pages
• Publisher: George Braziller; 1st edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807613657
• ISBN-13: 978-0807613658
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,158,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fate, legends and myth!!, December 22, 2002

By 

Iman Al Omrani (United Arab Emirates) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rock of Tanios (Hardcover)

`In our village, the rocks had names.' With the first words I knew that I was going to delve into this book and would not bring myself to put it down until I had finished!
Set in 19th century Lebanon, The title "The Rock of Tanios" refers to a peculiar rock formation, looking like a great stone chair, that dominated the Lebanese village of Kfaryabda. The central characters are Sheikh Francis, a Christian Arab, and the sheikh's illegitimate offspring, Tanios. When I first started reading the book, I was on the quest to find why the rock was named after Tanios. Little did I know that that was the last thing that I was going to learn from this gripping tale. Through the fates and legends of these characters Maalouf creates a historical romance filled with local myths, political games, treachery, and love.
I would have to say that one of Maalouf's main themes is lost or forbidden love; how we fall in love with what's different from us, and discover we're different from what we thought we were.
And, it is forbidden love, which tears Tanios' family apart and drives him into exile.
Deceiving as hope might be, a twist in fate and luck brings Tanios back to his mother's bosom. Ironically, as he finally makes it to his beloved home, Tanios is left yet again as the estranged boy who did not truly know his own identity, or did he?
An amazing read, Maalouf has done it again. A prize well deserved for his fascinating imagination to mix true life with fiction.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, nuanced work of historical fiction, May 10, 2007

By 

Utah Blaine (Somewhere on Trexalon in District 268) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rock of Tanios (Paperback)

This book is a terrific example of historical fiction and well deserving of the Prix Goncourt. It contains the two most important aspects of historical fiction. First, great historical fiction must contain a great deal of information on the era and the people in which the story is told. It really must convey the `feel' of the period. This story takes place (primarily) in a Druze village of Lebanon in the early to mid 1800s. You'll learn quite a bit about the complexities of 19th century Lebanese society and the larger scale geopolitical machinations between the French, British, Ottomans, and Egyptians, of which the proto-Lebanese state is caught helplessly in the middle. Second, the story contains a thoughtful tale about human ideals and relationships that is relevant and meaningful today. Maalouf succeeds admirably on both counts. The plot centers around a Druze youth who may or may not be the illegitimate child of the local sheik. This is a story about life's lessons and frustrations, and determining one's role in the world. Without giving too much away, the ending is extremely well done. Tanios (the main character) comes full circle, going from outcast to power broker, and realizes that being at the top isn't all that he thought it would be. Highly recommended.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, August 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Rock of Tanios (Hardcover)

A wonderfull work by a good writer. Being Lebanese my self, I appreciate the way Amin shows the way of life in Lebanon during the era of Shiks and Emirs. He presented a fiction that addressed the human nature from different prespective: greed, power, ambition, love, respect, revenge, anger, lust, and above all the inner peychological confusion of a kid realising that his father may not be his real father, and all its results. I greatly enjoyed the inclusion of the Lebanese words in the book, though translated into English, you have to be Lebanese to truly feel the meaning.

For me also, this fiction shows that the way of life in the Lebanese village's life of the 1800s in its reality still have echos in the daily political life of today's Lebanon.