Born in France from a father who was a diplomat and a mother who was a journalist, Dominique Lapierre, aged 67, has travailed the world since he was 14. After fifteen years as international correspondent with the European magazine 'Paris Match', he joined with US journalist Larry Collins to write five of the major bestsellers of the last thirty years: Is Paris Burning? - Or I'll Dress You in Mourning - O Jerusalem -Freedom at midnight and The fifth horseman. These books were read by more than 100 million readers. Is Paris burning? was made into a major movie by Paramount with fifty international stars. In 1981, Dominique Lapierre temporarily separated from his partner Larry Collins to write in solo The City of joy, a book about the courage, the love, the faith of a community of people living in a slum of Calcutta. Translated in some thirty languages, and made into a film with Patrick Swayze in the leading part,

The City of joy was sold more than seven and a half million copies. Lapierre donated half of his royalties to create a whole network of humanitarian actions in Calcutta and very poor areas of the Ganges delta. In 1991, Lapierre published another bestseller, 'Beyond Love', the epic story of the discovery of the Aid's virus. His last book 'A thousand Suns' is the saga about the Extraordinary heroes and events which have shaped the life of this remarkable author-philanthropist.