Wanderings of Baldassare

In 1665, the likeable book collector and dealer in curiosities Baldassare Embriaco sets out from Lebanon in search of a rare book that he had briefly owned but then lost. The book in question reveals the hundredth name of Allah, in addition to the 99 names listed in the Koran. Whoever knows the hundredth name will be assured of eternal life. According to predictions, the world will end in 1666. Baldassare is torn between his common sense, which tells him that there is no reason for the world to end, and his superstition, reinforced by fear and mass hysteria. Nevertheless, he decides to travel in search of the missing book. In The Wanderings of Baldassare, Maalouf evokes an intense image of the seventeenth century.