A world-renowned novelist, essayist, historian, journalist, and librettist, Maalouf bridges East and West through his exploratory writing about Arab culture. His fifth novel, The Rock of Tanios, won France’s premier literary award, the Prix Goncourt. Maalouf’s best-known nonfiction text, The Crusades through Arab Eyes, is considered a classic in Middle Eastern studies (cited by at least one hundred other books to date). The original French version of Maalouf’s first memoir, Origines, won the Prix Méditerranée in 2004.