Leo Africanus

Leo Africanus is, in a lot of ways, a good old-fashioned picaresque; Hasan is born in Granada in 1489, and when the muslims are kicked out of al-Andaluz he winds up stateless, homeless, and needing to survive (and help his family survive) by his wits. Does he travel all over the civilised world (the Mediterranean)? Of course he does. Does he meet most of the powerful people of his age, from kings to sultans to popes? Of course he does. Does he play a small but crucial part in historical events? You know he does.

At the same time, the novel shares a lot with some of my favourite 20th century examples of the genre - say, Eco's Baudolino or Bengtsson's The Long Ships, in that it's very consciously written for contemporary readers. He sneaks in discussion of current topics without ever making it too obvious, has the narrator not see the prejudices of his time while still making them stand out for the reader, while at the same time showing some things starting that still influence us today but have become so much a part of culture that we don't see them. Hasan (later Leo) lives through the end of one era and the beginning of a new one, sees the fall of Granada and the rise of the Ottoman empire, the departure of Columbus and the rise of the Habsburgs, the end of small-scale mediaeval culture and the beginning of a view of society, power and religion, that claim to want to return to something old while at the same time building something entirely new - both for bad and good. Maalouf creates a fully alive, entertaining character very much of his time, to show us things about how our own time came about.