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Livre de Poche – Ulysses from Baghdad

 

New edition of the novel Ulysses from Baghdad published by Livre de Poche editions with an introduction, foreword and afterword by the author.

La Nuit de Feu

 

At the bookshops from 3 September 2015

Audio-book read by the author at a bookshop on 2 December 2015.

I was born twice, once in Lyon in 1960 and once in the Sahara in 1989. One night can change a whole life.
 
In 1989 when he was twenty-eight, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt went trekking in the Sahara. He left, an atheist; ten days later, he returned, a believer.
 
In the unfamiliar territory of southern Algeria, he got to know the Tuareg people and discovered a life reduced to simplicity. Then, one day, he got lost for 30 hours in the vast wastes of the Ahaggar Desert. With nothing to eat or drink and no knowledge of where he was or whether anyone would find him, alone under the African sky where the stars appeared so close, he expected to be beside himself with fear; in fact, he found himself filled with a powerful force that comforted, enlightened and advised him.
 
That “night of fire”, as Pascal called his dramatic encounter with God, changed Schmitt forever. What happened? What did he hear? How do you deal with such an abrupt and unexpected experience when you are a philosopher trained in the agnostic tradition?
 
In this book, in which a vast inner journey runs parallel to the plot, Eric-Emmanuel reveals his private spiritual and emotional life for the first time and describes how that miraculous moment affected, not just his career as a writer, but his trajectory as a man.

Carnival of the Animals

 

Camille Saint-Saëns’ masterpiece as conceived by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt.

The book you are about to read naturally has a tale to tell, but it is a tale which, rather than accompanying the music, will open your ears the better to hear it.

Music doesn’t describe the world like a painting, a photo or the cinema: it has its own life and unique charm. But sometimes, it likes to reproduce elements from nature – a donkey braying, a cock crowing, or a cuckoo’s call. It suggests shapes, movement and colours, whimsically turning melodies we’ve heard before into turtles, elephants or dinosaurs.

Camille Saint-Saëns’ masterpiece as conceived by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt.

Illustrated with over 40 original watercolours by Pascale Bordet.

Narrated by Anne Roumanoff with music by Camille Saint-Saëns performed by the chamber orchestra directed by Pascal Amoyel.