Lebanese-French author Amin Maalouf, upon receiving a prestigious literary award in Mexico the day before, stated that the world is currently living through «the most exciting» era in history, though it is «sometimes frightening». The author of «The Rock of Tanios», for which he won the Goncourt Prize in 1993, one of the most significant awards in French-language literature, was honored with the Prize for Romance Languages at the opening of the International Book Fair in Guadalajara. The fair, one of the most important for the Spanish-speaking world, continues until December 7. After receiving the award, Maalouf expressed his admiration for technological progress, which enables him to easily access «all the knowledge of the universe», participate in international conferences from his bedroom, or see his grandchildren via video calls on the other side of the world. He said: «We live in an unsettling, and at times frightening, era». The prize in Guadalajara comes with a monetary reward of $150,000.
