Dominique Lapierre, Author of 'City of Joy', Passes Away
New Delhi: Dominique Lapierre, the French author who wrote City of Joy – the iconic book on Kolkata – has died. He was 91.
Lapierre's wife Dominique Conchon-Lapierre confirmed the news to French paper Var-matin. Conchon-Lapierre said he died of ailments related to age.
Born in July 30, 1931, at Chatelaillon in France, Lapierre began his career as a reporter of Paris-Match.
He went on to write several volumes, six in partnership with the US journalist Larry Collins. Among those six is the noted book on the liberation of Paris during the World War II, Is Paris Burning?
Collins also partnered with Lapierre for O Jerusalem! in 1972, Freedom at Midnight in 1975 and the novels The Fifth Horseman in 1980 and Is New York Burning? in 2005.
Other books like Beyond Love (1990) and A Thousand Suns (1999) have been international best-sellers.
The book which made him a household name in India, The City of Joy, was published in 1985. It showcased with humane attention, the debilitating poverty of Kolkata, then called Calcutta.
Like Is Paris Burning? which was directed by René Clément, City of Joy too was adapted as a film. Directed by Roland Joffé, the 1992 film starred Patrick Swayze, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi and Pauline Collins.
In 1981, the Lapierres founded the City of Joy Aid, a non-profit humanitarian organisation based in Kolkata. It aimed to run a network of clinics, schools, rehabilitation centres and hospital boats. Royalties from his eponymous novel and other books, along with lecture fees and reader donations, are reported to have run the charity.
Lapierre was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award in 2008.
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