Jean-Paul Kauffmann

Assistant to the Quiet Revolution, he dreamed of staying permanently in the country after falling in love with Mara, a bookseller from Latvia, as he recalls in his narrative Courlande.

His wife Joëlle Kauffmann [fr] was actively committed to his release[6] which occurred on 4 May 1988 with other hostages, through the intervention of Jean-Charles Marchiani, while Jacques Chirac was Prime minister of François Mitterrand.

[8]His captors provided him with some books during his captivity, including the second volume of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

For the first time in 2007, in La Maison du retour (2007), he evokes his captivity, his situation as a hostage and the moments which followed his return; the painful relearning of a "normal" life; his inability to read, for him the great literature enthusiast.

As in all Jean-Paul Kauffmann's books, everything is written, in a subdued tone: through the story of buying a house, a den or an airlock, so as to be able to return to his family and to life.