To start with a cliché he was born in Beirut but he writes his books in French. He has lived in two opposite cultures, therefore he is unique. He grew up in Lebanon until the age of 27. So his native language is considered Arabic. Then he had spent almost 22 years in French, where not only did he learn the language but also the life style and the culture. This contrary qualification puts him in the middle of a crisis called identity. Being able to see and live in totally different countries helped him gain an incomparable point of view.
I have read two of his books ‘Semerkant’, which takes place in Iran and ‘Ölümcül kimlikler’.After reading the article of Amin Maalouf in our eng 102 book I thought that I should put more of him for everyone to understand him better.
First of all he believes that our identity is unique. For example even if we are kloned we would differ from that person as soon as we start to breath. Because every step we take in life or just a thought would have different results. He also says that belonging to a certain religion, a family, a job, an institution, a team..exc. creates the genies of the soul. Against the comments, which claim that he has a karma identity, he points out that everyone is somehow karma. Asking some questions would be enough to understand that...
