Balthasar's Odyssey

A literal Odyssey from the Levant to London viewing the sights of the apocalypse. A bookseller of Genoese descent is caught up by the madness surrounding The Hundredth Name, a much sought after book that as far a Balthasar knows exists only as forgeries until a kindness to an old man puts it fleetingly in his hands. Mostly unwillingly he intermittently follows the book to London, retrieving it but not what he sought. How much of the dreamy tone is innate to the original or comes for the translation, I can't know, but though there is excitement and sorrows, none feel sharp or immediate in the journal entries that make up the text.

What do you do when you briefly hold in your hand and then lose a legendary book reputed to contain the secret name of God which will protect you against the pending Apocalypse? If you're anything like Balthasar, the hero of this one, you kick yourself and then go chasing it around Europe.

It took a few dozen pages to get into but after that I was hooked and thoroughly enjoyed it. An easy to read but erudite novel which left me wondering what became of a number of the other characters he met on his travels. This is the first book I've read by Maalouf but it certainly won't be the last.

Balthasar's odyssey may not last quite as long as the original wandering through the Greek world, but it takes the somewhat reluctant Genoese protagonist from his Levantine (Syrian) home as far as England, before he finds a home. The source of the wandering is a quest for a book with the hidden name of God, haphazardly found and lost, and the quest takes place in a year of global disruption and prophesied chaos. The picaresque journey is told through a number of diaries, each lost during another extraordinary adventure undertaken by Balthasar, our unwise everyman. We get to see glimpses of a cosmopolitan world teetering on the brink of major change; and of peace to be found after tumultuous wanderings.

Balthasar's Odyssey explores the speculation of the world coming to an end. The author has written quite an ambitious novel that sets at the eve of the year of the Beast; the year as predicted in the Book of Revelations in which the Antichrist will appear and the Apocalypse will resurface. God has 99 names in the Koran and it has been said that God has the most clandestine 100th name that contributes to the scope of the novel.
Balthasar Embriaco was a merchant and antique dealer living in the Levant. The Geonese embarks on the quest for a mysterious book entitled "The Hundredth Name" by fortuity. Crazed for the rumor and religious myth, Balthasar was convinced, with unshakable conviction, that the mere knowledge of this hundredth show more appellation will help him find salvation for not only himself but also mankind.

From Levant Balthasar set out on a tumultuous odyssey that spanned the Asia Minor, the Mediterranean and finally to Europe, a distance that was comparable to Paul's missionary routes. He left his mark in Constantinople and then bound for Smyrna, sailed across the Mediterranean to Genoa then Lisbon, and finally London. During his indefatigable quest for the book, Balthasar encountered fear, falsehood, charlatan, deceit, and disillusion, to the point he wished to give up.

Whether Balthasar found the book or not must be left to the readers, but Balthasar's journey had opened his eyes to the civilized world, to stricken communities, and cities in ruins. Though parts of the novel are somewhat trite and disjointed, Balthasar's Odyssey tells a tale of the Mediterranean through a unique religious perspective. show less

A good read particularly for the way Maalouf brings the historical period to life however I found the journal entry format to grow a bit tired after a period. The scope of the novel from Asia Minor through the Ottoman empire to London and back to Genoa is impressive.

This is one of my more regrettable DNFs. The writing style with indeterminate action was rather unappealing. I really wanted to have a more incisive quest-type of narrative. This mind set probably sunk the book for me.

No star rating because I didn't even reach the holy grail of reading 50 pages and the novel's style was too difficult to scan rapidly.

The Year of the BEast is nigh, the end of the world. Balthasar travels through the Ottoman Empire and Europe. I had the recurrent feeling that Amin Maalouf travelled the same route and noted down people's behaviour and then changed what needed to be changed to make it fit the 17th century. I don't know why he wrote this book. It was like eating a dish without salt.