Jean d'Ormesson's major new novel is an epic love story and a reflection on the twentieth century by one of France foremost beloved literary authors. The opening pages set the scene: the funeral of the protagonist's best friend, Romain (just like in the opening scene of the film The Barefoot Comtessa). So the book opens: 'I hated him for many years, we loved the same woman but he was also my friend. Often simple things are very complicated. We spent a lot of time together, walking and laughing; just thinking of him put a smile on my face. He was a big man, good-humoured, always composed, a little cynical as he believed in nothing, but he was able to laugh about himself. He had a very special gift: a talent to enjoy life. Men, women, children, animals, whole families, civil servants, professors of Metaphysics or the lady at the supermarket till - anybody who ever met him once wouldn't forget him. Of course the women loved him, but he also knew how to seduce men. Now he lies here cold and about to be buried for good by the earth he walked and worked so carefully. His life though, which he made out to be so happy, was a rather gloomy one...' Thus his life is unfolded by all the attendants who each drop a rose into his grave. And there are many. By using the technique of flashbacks, the author allows the narrator to go back and forth in time, taking the reader on a world trip: we go back to New York during prohibition in the 30's, to the Ukraine, to Paris during the '68 movement, to Patmos, to Turkey, to Germany under Hitler and the Nazis. We meet Lucky Luciano and Winston Churchill. This is a page-turning novel, subtle, sensual and classical, simply a 'grand roman'. Jean d'Ormesson's image has been mainly one as that of member of the Académie Française. However, his novel will set him on the same panel together with the great international writers of the 20th century.