Product Description

Ossyane, a young Lebanese man and his Jewish wife Clara return to live in Haifa after World War II. Just as war breaks out in the new-born state of Israel, Ossayne is forced to go to Beirut. The border with Israel closes behind him and he becomes separated from his wife with tragic consequences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59486 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-03
• Original language: French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
In the 1930s a brilliant young Lebanese takes himself to Montpellier to study away from his liberal father's revolutionary ambitions. When war breaks out Ossyane is drawn into the Resistance where he meets Clara, who is Jewish. Despite the obvious obstacles they marry and return to Haifa just as war breaks out between the new state of Israel and its Arab neighbours. Ossyane returns to Beirut to tend to his dying father but the border closes behind him.A touching love story by the 1993 Goncourt prize winner.

Customer Reviews

A love story and a plea of tolerance
"If I wanted to draw a faithful caricature" says Ossyane, the hero of this novel, of his beloved father, "I'd say that he dreamed of a world inhabited by generous and courteous men, impeccably dressed, bowing low to the ladies, brushing aside all differences of race, tongue and faith, and as passionate as children about photography, aviation, wireless telegraphy and the cinema." Ossyane is pacing his hotel room in Paris, telling the story of his life and family. It begins with the century in Istanbul, then moves with his father to Beirut and on to Ossyane's student days in France, where he falls in with the resistance and in love with Clara, a German Jew in hiding. After the war the young couple return to the holy land, where the Arab-Israeli conflict explodes their newfound tranquility. Maalouf is a highly learned journalist, historian and novelist, author of the celebrated "The Crusade through Arab Eyes" and "Rock of Tanios," which won the 1993 Prix Goncourt. Like Ossyane's father he is a passionate liberal who despairs at man's brutality and intolerance. He is also a wonderful, graceful storyteller, who keeps the politics backstage and the people in the limelight. This excellent novel is full of elegant meditations on Europe and the Orient, fathers and sons, ideologies and independence. But it is above all a love story and a plea of tolerance. It appeared in French in 1996, and is translated, with his usual delicacy, by that other great cosmopolitan, Alberto Manguel.

Highly recommended
A timely novel taking the reader into the pre state mosaic of peoples in the middle east.

A sort of Ottoman Levant War and Peace bringing in the end of the Turkish Empire, Lebanon and mandatory Palestine.

A fascinating and wonderful book.

great book about love passion and following the dreams
by writing this book maalouf cried out his heart maybe the part of his own life,dreams and hopes... this book is about a love story,about a man who wants to follow his dreams but with a twist of fate his life suddenly change and become more exciting...this book is written with the soul and the heart,you can feel all the emotions when you read the book,once you'll start it,you can't wait to finish it,maybe you'll read again and again,thanks maalouf for writing a book like that...