Jean-Christophe Rufin
Jean-Christophe Rufin (born 1952) is a French writer born in Bourges.
A doctor by training, Rufin has been specialized in humanitarian work, mainly in the French organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres. Coming late to literature, at the age of forty-six, he experienced popular success from the outset with his first novels, L'Abyssin (1997) and Sauver Ispahan (1999). Tapping the vein of history for their inspiration, although this has been deemed out of fashion, these two books portray the adventures beyond frontiers of a French Apothecary in the time of Louis XIV.
With over 400,000 copies sold since its publication in August 2001, awarded of the prestigious Prix Goncourt, Rouge Brésil offers yet further proof that the interest of the French public in historical fiction is alive and well. The plot of this veritable epic is set in 1555, on a small island in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, where an odd French expeditionary force, made up of sailors, craftsmen, priests, ex-convicts and a Quixotic knight, has just landed. Their objective is twofold: on the one hand, to set up a French colony on this far-off rich continent to compete with the Portuguese, on the other hand, to convert the Indians to Christianity.
Ill-prepared for the realities of the New World and, above all, torn apart by theological controversy which sets the Catholics and Calvinists among them against one another, these French pioneers see their dreams of colonisation gradually dissipate. Both satirical and colourful, Rouge Brésil is above all a passionate and exciting exploration of the origins of imperialist thinking.
Bibliography
Referenced By
2001 in literature | Goncourt Prize | List of books by title: R | Prix Goncourt | Rouge Bresil | Rouge Brésil
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