On the Isle of Antioch

On the Isle of Antioch (French: Nos frères inattendus) is a 2020 novel by the French-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf.

On the Isle of Antioch
AuthorAmin Maalouf
Original titleNos frères inattendus
TranslatorNatasha Lehrer
LanguageFrench
PublisherÉditions Grasset
Publication date
20 September 2020
Publication placeFrance
Published in English
5 December 2023
Pages336
ISBN978-2-246-82641-5

Plot

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The novel is told from the perspective of Alec Zander, a cartoonist who has settled on the small island of Antioch off the Atlantic coast of France, where he lives in semi-isolation. When communications temporarily go down and rumours emerge about nuclear war, he comes in contact with a secret society, les amis d'Empédocle (lit.'the friends of Empedocles'), that functions as a parallel civilisation and has set out to prevent planetary destruction.[1]

Reception

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Christophe Henning of La Croix called the book "epic and chilling" and wrote that it contains both criticism and humour.[2] Khadija Khalifé of The French Review wrote that On the Isle of Antioch repeats the message from Maalouf's 2019 book Adrift: How Our World Lost Its Way, where human wisdom is the solution to threatening apocalypse. She wrote that a strength of the book is its combination of optimism and refusal to deny real problems.[1] Kirkus Reviews called it "an elegant portrait of a dying world" and compared Maalouf to Arturo Pérez-Reverte in the way he handles speculative fiction.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Khalifé, Khadija (2021). "Maalouf, Amin. Nos frères inattendus. Grasset, 2020. ISBN 978-2-246-82641-5. Pp. 336". The French Review (in French). 95 (1): 252–253. doi:10.1353/tfr.2021.0254.
  2. ^ Henning, Christophe (18 November 2020). "« Nos frères inattendus » d'Amin Maalouf : seuls au monde". La Croix (in French). Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  3. ^ "On the Isle of Antioch". Kirkus Reviews. 20 October 2023. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
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