Amin Maaolouf Prince of Asturias Award for Literature 2010

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2010 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters, made up of Mr. Andrés Amorós Guardiola, Mr. Luis María Anson Oliart, Mr. J. J. Armas Marcelo, Ms. Blanca Berasátegui Garaizábal, Ms. Carmen Caffarel Serra, Mr. Pedro Casals Aldama, Mr. Antonio Colinas Lobato, Ms. Milagros del Corral Beltrán, Mr. Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Martínez de Irujo, Mr. José Luis García Martín, Ms. Pilar García Mouton, Ms. Olvido García Valdés, Mr. Manuel Llorente Manchado, Ms. Rosa Navarro Durán, Ms. Berta Piñán Suárez, Mr. Fernando Rodríguez Lafuente, Mr. Fernando Sánchez Dragó, Ms. Diana Sorensen, chaired by Mr. Víctor García de la Concha and with Mr. Román Suárez Blanco acting as secretary, has decided by majority vote to confer the 2010 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters on the Franco-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, who, through historical fiction and theoretical reflection, has managed to lucidly address the complexity of the human condition.

Using intense, suggestive language, Maalouf places us in the grand Mediterranean mosaic of languages, cultures and religions to construct a symbolic space for meeting and understanding.

Contrary to desperation, resignation or victimism, his work traces a path of its own towards tolerance and reconciliation, a bridge that extends deeply into the shared roots of peoples and cultures.

Oviedo, 9th June 2010