Abstract: In Les Désorientés, Amin Maalouf develops the theme of the return of the engaged intellectual, forced to expatriate himself for a quarter of a century. Several questions are raised: how does the disorientated individual experience his return to his native land? Is it possible to revive the past and erase disillusions? What is the relationship between memory and illusion, utopia, and realism? Is the return and reconstitution of the circle of old actors all that is needed to bring the dream back to life? Nothing is certain.
