Quote by Amin Maalouf: “Every man carries with him the ruins of his own country.”

This melancholic thought means that even when people leave their homeland, they carry the memories, losses, and challenges of their origin within them. The past, especially difficult pasts or societal collapses, always stays a part of who they are.

Set in the 16th century, the novel follows a traveler forced to navigate different cultures after the fall of Islamic Granada, symbolizing the enduring impact of lost homelands and cultural displacement.

Lebanese-French novelist and member of the Académie française whose work explores cultural identity, displacement, and the collisions of civilization. His 1998 essay On Identity (Les identités meurtrières) argued that rigid single-identity thinking is the root of modern violence.