Jacques Ferrandez

Jacques Ferrandez was born in 1955 in Algiers. After studying at the School of Decorative Arts in Nice, he began publishing in the magazine À Suivre in 1978 with Rodolphe, with whom he simultaneously launched the Raffini series (four volumes published from 1980 to 1988 by Les Humanoïdes Associés), while also publishing solo stories set in Provence: Arrière-pays (The Hinterland) and Nouvelles du pays (Tales from the Homeland). In 1987, he launched the first volume of his flagship series, Carnets d’Orient (Notebooks from the Orient). This epic chronicle of the history of the French presence in Algeria would span ten volumes published by Casterman. At the same time, he collaborated with Tonino Benacquista on L’Outremangeur (The Overeater) and La Boîte noire (The Black Box). A true globetrotter, Jacques Ferrandez brought back numerous travel journals. He published several volumes based on them, including Les Tramways de Sarajevo (The Sarajevo Trams), Retours à Alger (Returns to Algiers), and Cuba père et fils (Cuba: Father and Son), with his son Pierre. At Gallimard’ , he adapted three novels by Albert Camus into graphic novels: L’Hôte (The Guest, 2009), L'Etranger (The Stranger, 2013), and Le Premier Homme (The First Man, 2017), as well as Jean Giono’s Le Chant du Monde (The Soul of the World, 2019). Their shared passion for 'good food' brought him together with Chef Yves Camdeborde, a meeting that resulted in Frères de Terroirs (Rue de Sèvres, 2014). A leading expert on the history of Algeria, he returned to the subject in 2021 and 2023 with the two-volume Suites algériennes, in which he explores Algeria’s contemporary history from 1962 to the present day. It was only natural that he would then return to historical fiction with the two-volume series Orients perdus (Lost Orients), published by Daniel Maghen. This work depicts the life of Théodore Lascaris, a carefree painter and musician who joined Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign in 1798.