The lost

Number of pages: 560 pages Publisher: Center for Arab Literature In "The Lost," I draw inspiration from my youth with great exaggeration. I lived that period with friends who believed in a better world. And although there is no resemblance between the heroes of this novel and real people, they are not entirely fictional. I drew from the fountain of my dreams, delusions, and regrets as much as I drew from the fountain of my memories. The heroes of this novel were united in their youth, then dispersed, quarreled, and were separated by time, and their reunion occurs on the occasion of one of their deaths. Some refused to leave their homeland, while others emigrated to the United States, Brazil, or France, and they were taken by the paths they followed in different directions. So what still unites the owner of the liberated hotel, or the contractor who amassed wealth, or the monk who withdrew from the world and devoted himself to contemplation? Some shared memories, and an inescapable nostalgia for the past. The Lost is a novel depicting the state of our country, which is still lost, stumbling in its policies and defeats. A group of friends of different religions and affiliations part ways after the Lebanese civil war. With the death of one of them, the friends reunite after years, leading to an unexpected ending. The novel discusses fanaticism for religions, affiliations, and identities, the relationship between the East and the West, wars and their impact on people, and how they interact with them — topics that Amin Maalouf writes about skillfully.