Jean-Marie Dallet.

Born in Nantes in 1940, Jean-Marie Dallet is a rebellious writer with a passion for the sea, sailing, and related historical events. His first novel, Les Antipodes (1968), with a preface by Marguerite Duras, marked the beginning of a career spanning some fifteen novels, including Dieudonné Soleil, which won him the Goncourt Prize for historical fiction in 1983.

Sailing between Paris, the Mediterranean, and the South Pacific, Jean-Marie Dallet crisscrossed Tahiti aboard his sailboat, and his stories reflect this experience: blue seas, bright skies, wild lands, but also exile, colonization, and punishment. Novels such as Au plus loin du Tropique (2006), De Pareils Tigres (2010) and 17° Sud 149° Ouest (2011) explore these idyllic yet dangerous territories, combining adventure, epic storytelling, and questions about human nature.

He is the author of Provence Sketchbook, published by Éditions du Pacifique.