Our selection of 7 captivating historical novels

1. “The Crossing of Times: The Two Kingdoms”, by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt

Volume 5 of the cycle The Crossing of Times, Ed. Albin Michel, 544 p. ; €22.90.

After the Neolithic, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece, the author continues his cycle on the history of humanity with the Gauls and the Romans.

Noam and Noura, a mythical couple who span the ages thanks to their immortality, live in a Gallic town shaken by tensions between Celtic peoples that the Druids try to appease. It must be said that the old herbalist Tibor, father of Noura, seems to no longer be in his right mind…

Meanwhile, the Roman legions advance, and the valiant Noam, trapped, wakes up as a prisoner, Spartacus’ sidekick at the gladiator school…

If the first part, Gallic and hairy, is chivalrous, the second, imperial, with Noam who has become a Roman notable, introduces the reader to the strategies and low blows of the powerful – Marc Antony, Augustus and his wife Livia – who set fire to the Mediterranean. Before in Jerusalem, a certain Jesus made people talk about him…

An erudite and romantic story, which strangely echoes our times.

Muriel Fauriat

Our opinion: PPP