Death of Dominique Lapierre, writer, philanthropist and lover of India

In addition to his profile as a successful author who has sold millions of copies of his novels drawn from his many travels around the world, Dominique Lapierre will be remembered for his generosity and his philanthropy.

For example, after the success of his book The city of joy (1985), which recounts the living conditions in a Calcutta slum, he donated a large part of his royalties to ” these Third World heroes who give us everything because they have the hope, the courage, the ability to share with those who are poorer than them “. A substantial sum since the novel has sold 12 million copies and was the subject of a film, directed by British director Roland Joffé in 1992.

In 2005, he assured that, thanks to his royalties, donations from readers and earnings from lectures delivered around the world, his humanitarian work ” had made it possible to cure one million tuberculosis patients in 24 years, treat 9,000 leprosy children, build 540 drinking water wells and equip four hospital ships on the Ganges delta “. ” It’s not enough to be a best-selling author, you have to fight against these injustices that you denounce in your books “, liked to say this son of diplomat and journalist.

Exchange of good words with Mother Teresa

Dominique Lapierre’s trajectory will remain closely linked to India, this country for which he will have a ” thunderbolt ” in 1981, and in particular for a ” slightly wrinkled old lady with a blue edged saree », Mother Theresa. To this saint, canonized by Pope Francis in 2016, the writer offered her $50,000: “ it’s a drop in the ocean “. To which, his interlocutor retorted: without them, the ocean would not be the ocean “. He was also involved with people of Bhopalpoisoned after the terrible industrial disaster of December 1984 which left between 16,000 and 30,000 dead, and 500,000 injured, more than 300,000 sick, many of whom are disabled.

A true idol in the state of West Bengal, he received the Padma Blushan Medal from the hands of the Indian government for his action against poverty. His passion for the country-continent will lead to his temporary separation from his lifelong sidekick, the American writer Larry Collins. Together they wrote six novels that sold some 50 million copies. Among these, is paris burning, published in 1964, will also be the subject of a film adaptation. The director René Clément will gather around this story of the Liberation of Paris, on August 25, 1944, a five-star cast with Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Kirk Douglas, Yves Montand, Jean-Pierre Cassel… The Americans Francis Ford Coppola and Gore Vidal co-wrote the screenplay.

When Dominique met Larry

Dominique met Larry when the two were criss-crossing the world as great reporters, growing from rivals to friends. ” One day, Larry locked me in my hotel room in Baghdad, because at the time, I worked for “Paris Match” and he at “Newsweek”. He was the only one to photograph the Iraqi revolution. I got revenge by giving him a wrong timetable for a train that was leaving from Djibouti to Addis Ababa and I was the last to interview the Negus “, explained in 2004 the French novelist on the tv set of Everyone speaks about it.

The two accomplices were so close that they had each bought a house in Ramatuelle, in the south of France, only separated from a tennis court. The duo is now reunited and Dominique joins his “ feather brother », Larry Collins, disappeared in 2005.

(With AFP)