I did not know the Author, and I am "thrilled" to have discovered. An excellent book; A beautiful rich history of adventures, emotions, humanity all extremely documented - truly a feast of reading I read in the evening and during the day this novel does not let us; it remains present in memory by bit, you think about it, it comes back to try us - we focus and we do expect the evening to quickly resume the book and "live" alongside his characters. And tonight, I am sad to have finished. My friends are gone.