On the Isle of Antioch
"Lebanese-born French author Maalouf delivers an elegant portrait of a dying
world. A beguiling, lyrical work of speculative fiction by a writer of
international importance." -Kirkus Reviews, *Starred Review*
Alec, a press artist with an impressive track record, settles on a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean. He has little contact with his neighbor, a solitary woman who wrote a cult book years ago, before withdrawing from public life. That is, until a gigantic power failure cuts them off from the rest of the world, and all of a sudden they find themselves dependent on each other. The world appears to be on the brink of nuclear war and the collapse of civilization seems imminent. Just who are the mysterious friends of Empedocles, the gang of otherworldly protectors who came swooping in to interfere with the US presidency and cure all illness? Should we trust them? On the Isle of Antioch is a suspenseful novel with mythological roots, written in the dreamy language of the classics, by internationally renowned scholar Amin Maalouf.
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NATASHA LEHRER is a prizewinning writer, translator, and editor. Her long-form journalism and book reviews have appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, the Times Literary Supplement, the Nation, Haaretz, and Fantastic Man, among others, and she is literary editor of the Jewish Quarterly. She has contributed to several books, including a chapter on France in Looking for an Enemy: 8 Essays on Antisemitism, edited by Jo Glanville. The writers she has translated include Nathalie Léger, Chantal Thomas, Vanessa Springora, Victor Segalen, Robert Desnos, and Georges Bataille.
Praise for On the Isle of Antioch
"Lebanese-born French author Maalouf delivers an elegant portrait of a dying world. A beguiling, lyrical work of speculative fiction by a writer of international importance." -Kirkus Reviews, *Starred Review*
"A timely novel that captures the concerns oftoday and is an excellent addition to any library's collection of dystopian
fiction." --Jacqueline Snider, The Library Journal
"A marvelous parable." --Le Figaro littéeacute;raire
"In this work of speculative fiction, remarkable men lay claim to Ancient Greece and heal an ailing mankind." --L'Obs
"The latest novel of the Franco-Lebanese author isn't just a novel. It's a warning to all passengers: we're moving in a dangerous direction. A cry of alarm, but also of hope." --Le Soir
"One of his most powerful novels." --La Provence
"Maalouf revives the Greek miracle as an idea but avoids Manicheism. He stimulates reflection without ever impinging on the pleasure of reading a thriller." --Le Point
"Amin Maalouf has concocted a complex, nerve-racking thriller with mythological roots." --Livres Hebdo Le Magazine
"Without pontificating, Amin Maalouf broaches very important topics, throughout all the delicious suspense." --L'Express
"The latest Amin Maalouf is an intricate thriller, which can be read on various levels, resonating with the unprecedented crisis our civilization is facing." --L'Orient-Le Jour
"A philosophical thriller in the form of a cry of alarm. ... Mixing speculation and philosophical reflection, Amin Maalouf has written a captivating humanist story, troubling in the way it resonates with our time." --Midi Libre
"Between dystopia and philosophical tale, Amin Maalouf imagines, in a world on the brink of self-destruction, salvation thanks to the fraternity of a small number." --La CroixPraise for Amin Maalouf
"Maalouf is a thoughtful, humane and passionate interlocutor." --New York Times Book Review
"Amin Maalouf is one of that small handful of writers, like David Grossman and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who are indispensable to us in our current crisis." --New York Times
"Maalouf's fiction offers both a model for the future and a caution, a way towards cultural understanding and an appalling measure of the consequences of failure. His is a voice which Europe cannot afford to ignore." --The Guardian
"At this time of fundamentalist identity seekers, Amin's is a voice of wisdom and sanity that sings the complexity and wonder of belonging to many places. He is a fabulist raconteur; he tells vastly entertaining adventure stories that are also deeply philosophical." --ARIEL DORFMAN, author of Feeding on Dreams: Confessions of an Unrepentant Exile
"Amin Maalouf seems to follow Flaubert in looking at the East, but he centres the narrative differently: it's the Orient telling itself. You l
