Kessel is a great writer. But I never thought he could be so sensitive. It dant a portrait of his friend Mermoz ... It's upsetting. Yet we never feel that Kessel lets pièger by the charisma of his comrade. Kessel described Mermoz and depicts all its complexity to be around. Mermoz was a pure, one of the absolute conqueror. He could not Souffir any compromise. He died. It's beautiful.