French writer Dominique Lapierre, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid in June 2008.CRISTÓBAL MANUEL
The French writer Dominique Lapierre, best known for books like The City of Joy or Is Paris Burning? and Oh, Jerusalem, which co-wrote with Larry Collins and sold millions, has died aged 91, his widow confirmed to French publication Var-matin. A novelist, essayist and journalist, he was a reporter for Paris Match magazine for many years, first in the USSR and then in India. It was precisely from this experience that the inspiration for perhaps his most famous and successful novel, The City of Joy, published in 1985, set in the suburbs of Kolkata and, according to Lapierre himself, was built from what he himself saw in the outskirts of the city Indian city. The author has used part of the proceeds from the book to fight against the same poverty that he described in the work.
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The book had such an impact that, according to Il Corriere della Sera, after reading it, many young people decided to volunteer or study medicine. And that the same newspaper recalls that when Lapierre addressed the project, he received a skeptical response from his editor. In short, that the life of a rickshaw driver, a girl who collects coal, or a Swiss nurse or an English tie seller living in India would not interest anyone. Exactly the opposite happened. And the writer, already enjoying the fame of his historical and literary reconstructions alongside Larry Collins, received the final nudge to fame.
Born in Châtelaillon, France, in 1931 into a family of diplomats, he suffered World War II in Paris and in the late 1940s made a trip to Mexico, the United States and Canada, from where he published his first book, One Dollar a Thousand Kilometers , published in Spain by Ediciones B. The title was based on the reality of his journey, an adventure of 32,000 kilometers with only $32 in his pocket.
In 1965 he co-published Is Paris Burning? with Collins. (Planet), detailed reconstruction of the days before the liberation of the French capital during World War II, compiled from dozens of testimonies. The very rigor of investigation and documentation, along with literary quality, were some of the most celebrated hallmarks of the works of Lapierre and Collins, a Newsweek correspondent. Such was the case with Oh, Jerusalem (Planet), again co-written by Four Hands, focused on the birth of the State of Israel, and is still considered one of the best sources for understanding one of the most troubled parts of the planet.
Other of his best-known books are Tonight, Freedom – about the birth of India and Pakistan that took four years of work and a journey of more than 250,000 kilometers in search of places and testimonies – and … Or you will mourn for me – about life of the bullfighter El Cordobés, where civil war, Francoism and bullfighting parade are happening in the background – (both in Planeta, with Collins). In the 1970s, the pair of reporters became a central point of reference in narrative journalism. And by the way, he made millionaire income.
Following the success of The City of Joy, which has been translated into more than 30 languages, Lapierre and his wife founded the eponymous NGO dedicated to raising funds to fight poverty in India. And he strengthened his already strong ties to the country even more: after meeting Mother Teresa of Calcutta, he launched a long line of initiatives and associations in support of India’s public health sector, as well as some of the country’s most punished groups: lepers, children with disabilities, marginalized women. His profile as an activist combined and blended with that of a writer, giving conferences across Europe raising new funds for the Indians most in need. Il Corriere della Sera cites an estimate by Lapierre himself that he spent up to $65 million on his social struggles. Co-written with Spaniard Javier Moro, Era Midnight in Bhopal addresses inequality and injustice in India and tells the true story of a poison gas cloud that claimed thousands of lives in the Indian city of Bhopal after escaping from an American factory .
On June 10, 2012, a fall caused head trauma and slipped into a coma, from which he awoke to undergo lengthy rehabilitation. He no longer wrote, but his books were already remembered by millions of readers.
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