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Katrina Gulliver

Balthasar’s Odyssey – Amin Maalouf

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In the 17th century Mediterranean, there was big money to be made in smuggling mastic, a gum from a tree related to the pistachio. In use since classical times, high-class ladies and courtesans chewed it to whiten their teeth and freshen their breath. This book is full of such insights to various elements of culture and trade three centuries ago.

This book is the story of Balthasar (or Baldassare in his native Italian), a merchant from a Genoan family long resident in the Levant. His trade is books and curios; in 1665 he heads off on a journey that leads him across Europe in pursuit of a rare book, one he had always supposed was a myth.

This is the book of the Hundredth Name, purported to reveal the secret name of God. There are 99 names for God in the Koran, and knowing the hundredth name is supposed to grant mystical powers. The discussions on the various interpretations of the relevant Koranic passages here are fascinating to one not versed in Islamic scripture. Balthasar’s own scepticism regarding the book – whether it is a forgery, and whether he could believe in its powers even if genuine – show us a character with true depth and nuance.

What makes it significant to him is the growing hysteria among believers that 1666 is the year of the beast, destined to bring the end of the world, and access to the secret name of God could bring salvation.

Balthasar’s story also includes ruminations on the nature of exile, as relevant today as in 1666. Born and raised in the Levant, he still identifies himself as a Genoan, a son of a city he has never visited. As a Christian he is in a minority, and would be made to feel foreign regardless his own feelings of loyalty to his place of birth.

In describing Balthasar’s visits to Constantinople, Smyrna, Genoa, Lisbon, London and Amsterdam, Maalouf paints detailed vignettes of different cultures. He is in London at the outbreak of the Great Fire, and feels the effects of anti-Catholicism and a society still reeling from the Civil War.

Along with his search for the book of the Hundredth Name, Balthasar finds himself pursuing romance. The telling details of this relationship are told with honesty and elegant phrases. Maalouf has a deft touch to allow sympathy for all his characters, partly through a hero who reflects at length on the people around him.

This book is also a credit to the translator who has found such atmospheric language to put this story in English from the original French.

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