Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt

(born 1960) – French novelist, playwright, essayist and philosopher. He began as a philosophy lecturer at the University of Savoy, but after the tremendous success of his theatre plays: La Nuit de Valognes (Don Juan on Trial) staged in 1991 in the Parisian Comédie des Champs-Elysées theatre and Le Visiteur (The Visitor), he gave up the university job for writing in 1993. One of the most widely-read contemporary French authors – his texts have been translated into 35 languages. He was awarded Grand Prix du Théâtre de l’Académie Française in 2001. In 2010, he received the Prix Goncourt in the category of short story for his storybook Concerto to the Memory of an Angel. A dozen or so of his books came out in Poland, including Oscar and the Lady in Pink (2004), Petits crimes conjugaux (Partners in crime; 2005), L'Évangile selon Pilate (The Gospel According to Pilate; 2005), Noah's Child (2007), La tectonique des sentiments (Sentimental tectonics; 2008); Lorsque j'étais une œuvre d'art (When I Was a Work of Art; 2014), and Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran (2016).

Pic. Stéphane de Bourgies