Jean-François Deniau's last and long awaited volume of memoirs, more intimate than the previous ones.

This last volume of Jean-François Deniau's memoirs is more open than the previous two, even intimate. Whether in the shadows or enjoying the limelight, the story of his life is like something out of a novel. With his caustic humour, his acute sense of observation, and the generosity that characterizes his view of the world, Deniau tells of his political escapades, the extraordinary feats, the below the belt blows, and the behind-the-scenes diplomatic negotiations. His account of the races he has sailed is heartstoppingly vivid. Deniau confides how love annihilated his depression, and how the earth of his Charente roots made him believe in eternity. Perhaps the most moving is his openness about the illness that has waged a war inside his body, and his description of his inner journeys that transport him when his feet no longer can. Retired to a literary life, Jean-François Deniau has become an intent observer of the world, familiar with the subtle complexity of its geopolitical stakes, and a discreet consultant as well. As he proves once again in these pages, he will never cease to multiply his lives and to savour every second of every resurrection, to love and to live, because one best prepares for death by ignoring it.