Le Rocher de Tanios (Cadas Tanios)

Title: Cadas Tanios
Author: Amin Maalouf
Publisher: Yayasan Obor Indonesia (1999)
ISBN: 9794613223
Pages: 262 pages
Original Title: Le Rocher de Tanios
Original Published Date: 1993

I tried to read Balthasar's Odissey (by the same author) several times before, and always stopped in the middle of the book. So was Samarkand, it take a looooong time to crunched in. So no wonder I had doubt to picked up this book, even tough the old books seller sworn of it greatness (he's quite good of picking books of my taste). Well I had to admitted, I was wrong. Cadas Tanios is really-really recomended.

Tanios was a young man that even in his time of birth had brought a bad mouth, condemned by uncertainty of who his real father was. In his young time, his thrist of knowledge forced him to faced the politication of his village's geographical location and power strugling of other countries (btw, his village called Kfaryabda, a mountain area in Lebanon, which the only way to find it on the map is by using the most detail regional map and using a magnifier glass to looked - p.88). Then, his puppy love for a girl brought him, and his father, to a twisted fate of destiny, one that ended by making him an accidental hero which he would never expected. This thus led to a decission which may... or may not... change the destiny of his people through generations.

The story of Tanios was not just a story of a young boy who was born with the shadow of bad karma. It was also a story of a nation in the middle of nowhere mountain which was trapped in the shadow of power shifting between Egypt and Turk, French and Britain, and the strugle of religion domination between Islamic, Katholik and English Church. And it was a story of people made mistakes and lived with it.

It was beautifully written. Realistic without over the head romance nor political agenda. I also really like the open ending which gave the readers the room to imagining things. I myself choose to believe what Nader said about a ship sailed to picked him up and brought him back to Thamar. One thing for sure, this novel is definetly my favorite.

***

Untuk edisi bahasa indonesia ini, terjemahannya sangat enak dibaca. Suka penterjemahan 'tetek kuntilanak' dan 'kearifan pedagang keliling'. Beberapa istilah dibiarkan dalam bahasa aslinya, seperti Cheikh atau Bouna, Khayye dan Bayye, sehingga citarasa timur tengah-nya lebih terasa. Namun beberapa nama tempat, seperti Beyrouth, tetap dituliskan dalam ejaan Perancis, sehingga terkadang butuh beberapa detik untuk menyadari maksudnya.
Ada sedikit typo di sana-sini, tidak terlalu mengganggu, namun satu yang sungguh mencolok mata, adalah typo di sinopsis cerita di sampul belakang, yang salah mengeja nama tokoh utama sekaligus judul buku ini. Kok bisa gitu lhoooo.... *rolling eyes*

***

Did a little googling just now, and found some pictures of Kfaryabda's Rocks (or Kfarabida at most spelling).
This is my fav pic. Not really sure which one is Tanios'. :p