An admirable style for a compelling story.

Rarely reading a book will have given me such pleasure. By the same author, I had already enjoyed "Brazil Red" I read it twice, and I liked even more "The Abyssinian" I will certainly read more "Save Isfahan."
Why such relish? First feather Rufin is light, fluid, alert, rich in metaphors, and one often sees the wink of the author at the turn of a well-turned phrase that gives subtlety and humor in collusion to the story .
Then it was a fun at any time to follow in his various travels the hero of this story, Jean-Baptiste Poncet. Like the medieval quests, Poncet perform tasks that should allow him to approach and win the woman he loves. However, giving depth to this character is that he allows himself a certain freedom when it accepts or refuses to enter the aims of its various sponsors.
As the story unfolds in the 1700 --in Egypt, Abyssinia and France--, it is very difficult to escape his class. Still, Poncet, determined to overcome the obstacles that stand in the fulfillment of his love, is opposed to social determinism.
Her journey reminds us of the chess game: the various pieces play with unequal arms. However, the weakest element sometimes to damn the pawn out stronger. Then, the evolution of the story is reminiscent of a chess game. Each episode appear more possible combinations. Privileged spectator, the reader wonders what strategy will be adopted and what the new balance that will result in between the various characters. This chess game proceeds until some are out of the game or on the contrary reinforce, as the pawn which greatly increases its powers when it managed to cross all the chessboard metaphor here Poncet and the Egypt, Abyssinia and France 1700.