Amin Maaolouf Prince of Asturias Award for Literature 2010

Statement by Amin Maalouf, on being bestowed with the 2010 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters:

“It is both a great honour and a great joy for me to receive the Prince of Asturias Award. Ever since the beginnings of my literary activity, Spain has always been present in my work. Not only because it is the motherland of the hero of my first novel, Leo Africanus, but also, and above all, because it has been an emblematic meeting place –and has remained so for centuries– between the three great Mediterranean religions. And in our time, Spain has also been the laboratory of an exemplary renewal of democracy.

For these reasons, and for a number of others, I am happy and proud to find myself –thanks to this prestigious award that has just been bestowed on me– even closer to this great country and its culture, which has been such an inspiration for me in my books. Once again, thank you!”.

Amin Maalouf
Paris, 9^th June 2010