Born in Tebessa located in ,what was then, the French colony of Algeria. Robert Merle and his family moved to France in 1918. Merle wrote in many styles and won the Prix Goncourt for his novel Week-end 脿 Zuydcoote. He has also written a 13 book series of historical novels, Fortune de France. Recreating 16th and 17th century France through the eyes of a fictitious Protestant doctor turned spy, he went so far as to write it in the period's French making it virtually untranslatable.
His novels Un animal dou茅 de la raison (A Sentient Animal, 1967), a stark Cold War satire inspired by John Lilly's studies of dolphins and the Caribbean Crisis, and Malevil (1972), a post-apocalyptic story, were both translated into English and filmed, the former as Day of the Dolphin. The film The Day of the Dolphin bore very little resemblance to Merle's story.
He died of a heart attack at his home La Malmaison in Grosrouvre near Paris.
Ahmed Ben Bella was the first president of Algeria. He was a socialist, devout Muslim, a Pan-Arabist and Pan-Africanist. He fought against French colonialism to free his country from economic and social oppression and racism. This book is a series of interviews in Ben Bella's own words. Ben Bella is a wonderful storyteller of the history of himself and his nation. Some of his later comments near the book's end are very important eyeopeners into the current situation in the Middle East and Africa. After Robert Merle had published this book, Ahmed Ben Bella was overthrown in a coup and imprisoned for many years and exiled. He later returned to his country and worked as an elder statesman. He died this year at the age of 93.