NICE, France (AP) — French writer Dominique Lapierre, who was celebrated for his historical work on the World War II struggle to liberate Paris and a novel depicting a life of hardship in a Kolkata slum in India, has died. He was 91.
Lapierre died Friday, a local newspaper in southern France reported Monday, citing an interview with the author’s wife, Dominique Conchon-Lapierre.
She told the Var Matin newspaper that Lapierre died “of old age†and that she was “at peace because (her husband) is no longer suffering.â€
French Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak praised Lapierre as an author and journalist whose travels around the world - from Mexico to India, New York City to Jerusalem – made him an “eyewitness of the 20th century†and enriched his novels with facts.
"We have lost a great writer, who was generous in his texts and was generous in his life," Abdul Malak said in a statement.
In 1964, Lapierre drew on archived material to co-author with American writer Larry Collins a recounting of the liberation of the French capital in August 1944. The book — “Is Paris Burning?†— was made into a movie by French filmmaker Rene Clement. Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola were listed among a group of screenplay writers.
Lapierre was born in 1931 in the western French city of Chatelaillon to a diplomat father and a mother who had worked as a journalist. In the 1950s, Lapierre worked as a journalist and a foreign correspondent for Paris-Match. He lived most of his life in the French Riviera town of Ramatuelle with Conchon-Lapierre, his wife of 56 years.
Lapierre had a special bond with India and spent a lot of time in Kolkata, a city that was nicknamed “The City of Joy†after his 1985 novel with that title. The book, which chronicled the life of a rickshaw puller in a Kolkata slum, was adapted by Roland Joffé into a 1992 film.
He also donated generously to several charities engaged in humanitarian work in Kolkata.
Two of his other books —“Freedom at Midnight†and “Five Past Midnight in Bhopal: The Epic Story of the World’s Deadliest Industrial Disaster†— were histories of events in India. Lapierre was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award, in 2008.
