The author, Gilbert Grellet, a writer and journalist, knows Spain well, having notably headed the AFP bureau in Madrid for five years (2005-2010), writing on the theme of the Spanish Civil War and Spain’s « historical memory. » This new book is a logical continuation of his previous book on the Spanish Civil War, Un été impardonnable (An Unforgivable Summer), in which he denounced the policy of non-intervention by Western democracies in the face of the 1936 coup against the Spanish Republic, launched by military officers supported by Hitler and Mussolini.
The author of several other books, Grellet notably won the prize for best French suspense novel in 1988 for Le Souffle Austral (Wind of death).