The Rock Of Tanios

The Rock of Tanios

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., OhioCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Tanios, the illegitimate son of a powerful Sheik, becomes caught up in the political intrigues of the Middle East 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 Booklist The French were impressed enough by Maalouf's tale to bestow on it their prestigious Goncourt Prize in 1993. A story about obligations of power and the relation of fact to myth, it depicts the lives of Sheikh Francis, a Christian Arab who rules a Levantine satrapy named Kfaryabda circa 1840, and the boy Tanios, the sheikh's illegitimate offspring. The author utilizes the story-within-a-story literary device to structure the work: an elderly visitor relates to the narrator the legend of the disappearance of Tanios; curious, the narrator dips into musty local histories to reconstruct, and imagine, the events and evoke the languid atmosphere of bygone times. The setting, thus, is a revolt in the Ottoman Empire that sweeps back and forth over the sheikh's lands on Mount Lebanon. Tanios' life is buffeted by politics; but it is the sheikh's secret paternity, rumored in the village, that controls Tanios' life. This "secret" paternity sets in motion a crazy course of intrigue, exile, English intervention, and violence, culminating in Tanios' elevation by acclamation to the sheikhship, after which he mysteriously vanishes. Intended, possibly, as a commentary on the origins of Lebanon's murderous recent history, Maalouf's subtle strokes of custom, conversation, and plot should engage the serious litterateur. Gilbert Taylor From Kirkus Reviews Lebanese journalist and author Maalouf's (Leo Africanus, 1988, etc.) Goncourt Prizewinning historical romance is lyrical and poetic. Set in the Lebanese village of Kfaryabda, the novel skips merrily from the present into the late 19th century as an aged townsman tells his nephew the story of Lamia and Tanios. Lamia, the wi