” BALTHASAR’S ODYSSEY ” through hell and back again

[milla gardner]

Imagine YOUR LIFE’S END; DON’T MEAN TO RING THE MORBID BILL HERE BUT HUMOR ME AND CHOOSE AN ENDING ?

drowning ? , burned , killed in war , or on a kidnaped ship offshore . now On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your prefered ending . well , now you know exactly what i went through reading this novel .
” Balthasar’s Odyssey ” is a fictional / historical novel by Amin Maalouf ; first published in france with a title of ” Le Périple de Baldassare ” . translated to english by Barbara Bray in 2000 .

the novel’s plot stretches along two years time, with a shop owner called “Balthasar Embriaco” – who is a Genoan living in the Levant – as the narrator .
Balthasar leads a very, very common life, with antiquaries, food, family , and belly fats . up until he meets a blind man ” Idriss ” with a curious book that set him right back on his feet and out on the road to constantinople.
he book is called ” The Hundredth Name ” , a revelation that could save humanity from an
apocalyptic event falling on the year 1666, the “Year of the Beast” . (In Islam there are 99 names for God & to know the 100th is to ensure one’s salvation. )
since the world is already ratteling outside, and 1666 is couple of month away , ” Balthasar ” have the responsibility of keeping the book , translate it , and save everyone . but he loses it to a highly ranked french leader instead ..

Balthasar sets out on a long wearisome journey with “pert” the servant , “Marta”, and two nephews ” Jaber ” the scholar & “Habib ” the womanizer .

This is the story in summary ( WITHOUT SPOILERS !! )

now to my point of view

Maalouf’s novel ” Balthasar’s Odyssey” is full of plot twists , conspiracy , love , and betrayal , these Elements are well distributed through the main story, and with a Logical place and timing .as a reader i felt the danger and the fear surrounding the characters.
and as i said in the very begining , death was – literally – everywhere .

that brings me to the ” character build ” , witch i really loved .
the development and variation of characters was pretty obvious as i went further in, distinct character features is a hard thing to adopt when writing a historical novel , so my expectations weren’t high to be honest , i’m so glad i’m proven wrong .

another feature that attracted me to this book was the educational part .
the historical events in this novel are A LOT , and they aren’t fictional historical events, so you’ll need to pause sometimes and search father, same goes for the Civilizations mentioned .

I would recommend this book to any heavy reader, also if you’re a fan of Orhan Pamuk , umberto eco , or gilbert sinoue , you’d love this, Amin Maalouf eminent .
Rated
4.5 / 5