Ports of Call

Beautiful story written masterfully. Also, it is not just a story historical document as well.

Good*****

Amin Maalouf has done it again with this beautiful, quiet triumph of a book. His words drag you from page to page - the only drawback being that you finish far too soon. Highly recommended.

I'm not sure why this book gets such high ratings as it was pretty average and not an especially riveting read. Furthermore, this is the first book I have read where words were missing from sentences. Perhaps the translation wasn't adequately proof-read.

This is the third novel of Amin Maalouf which I have completed, first was Samarkand and second Leo the African , I cannot really rank them may be because there is no comparison and all of them are written in different historical perspectives. Ports of call is a love story of Ossyane, an ottoman muslim by blood, born in Beirut and Clara a jew both of them meet in France in second world war days at a comrades home and this single meeting becomes a cornerstone for their marriage which takes place much later, they live together for a very brief period and then live for decades with new drawn boundaries between them, to meet again only. I read this novel continuously to complete it but then at last ten pages I left it for one more day because I did not want to finish this beautiful story so quickly. It is one more very well written novel by Amin Maalouf.

by writing this book maalouf cried out his heart maybe the part of his own life,dreams and hopes... this book is about a love story,about a man who wants to follow his dreams but with a twist of fate his life suddenly change and become more exciting...this book is written with the soul and the heart,you can feel all the emotions when you read the book,once you'll start it,you can't wait to finish it,maybe you'll read again and again,thanks maalouf for writing a book like that...

A timely novel taking the reader into the pre state mosaic of peoples in the middle east. A sort of Ottoman Levant War and Peace bringing in the end of the Turkish Empire, Lebanon and mandatory Palestine. A fascinating and wonderful book.

great book

The novel is the story of two ill-starred lovers in the Middle East. Ossyane, the principle narrator a muslim Ottoman prince and a hero of the french revolution and his beloved Clara a jew. Ossyane is a name which means `Rebellion' or "Disobedience'. When Ossyane's father gave him that name it represented a protest of an aristocratic but liberal man against history of sectarianism and violence that had characterized the world inherited from his Ottoman ancestors. Ossyane tells of how he went to France, to become a doctor but instead became an accidental hero. He briefly meets Clara whom he meets again back home after the war. They marry in the after math of WWII; unfortunately the chaotic dislocations that ensure keep them apart for quarter of a century, during which time the prince is unjustly committed to a mental asylum of the insane. The marriage is presented here as an exemplary rejection of suspicion and hatred between people, most particulary in the Middle East.