<p>Journalist for <em>Le Nouvel Observateur</em>, essayist and novelist, has published twenty books that treat a broad range of themes. His non-fiction includes <em>La vie quotidienne en Colombie au temps du cartel de Medellin</em> (Hachette, 1992) [Daily Life in Colombia in the Era of the Medellin Cartel]; <em>Une mort africaine</em>. Le SIDA au quotidienne (Seuil, 1995) [An African Death. Living with AIDS]; and <em>La Cage aux Fous</em> (Librio, 2002) [The Asylum] in which the writer feigns insanity to gain admission to a psychiatric hospital. There, under cover, he chronicles what he observes and experiences. His award-winning fiction includes <em>Le baiser de Judas</em> (Grasset, 2004) [Judas&rsquo; Kiss] which won the literary prize Jean d&rsquo;Heurs for a historical novel. His work has also been recognized with the prestigious 2005 Prix des &eacute;diteurs; the original of the present volume won the Prix France T&eacute;l&eacute;vision.</p>