Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

The next year, he produced another novel about a contentious historical figure: The Alternative Hypothesis (La Part de l'autre) is an alternate history in which the young Adolf Hitler is in 1908 accepted into the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna, setting him on the path to become a recognized painter; what follows changes the course of history for the entire world.

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (born 28 March 1960) is a Franco-Belgian playwright, short story writer and novelist, as well as a film director.

His plays have been staged in over fifty countries all over the world.

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's parents were teachers of physical education and sport, and his father later became a physiotherapist and masseur in paediatric hospitals.

He was also a French boxing champion while his mother was a medal-winning runner.

His grandfather was an artisan jeweller.

The "Classiques & Contemporains" edition of La Nuit de Valognes (Don Juan on Trial) claims that Schmitt depicts himself as a rebellious teenager who detested received wisdom and was sometimes prone to violent outbursts.

According to Schmitt, however, it was philosophy that saved him and taught him to be himself and to feel that he was free.

One day, his mother took him to the Théâtre des Célestins to see a performance of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac starring Jean Marais.

Her son was moved to tears and the seeds of his passion for the theatre were sown.

After the show, he told his mother that he wanted to "be like the man on the poster"; his mother thought he meant the actor, Jean Marais, but he replied: "No!"

and read out the name on the poster "Edmond Rostand".

He then began to write.

Later, he would say: "At sixteen, I realised (or decided) that I was a writer, and I wrote, produced and acted in my first plays at high school."

To improve his style, he threw himself with frenzied zeal into exercises of pastiche and re-writing, especially Molière.

After preparatory classes at the Lycée du Parc for France's elite universities, Schmitt passed the entrance exam to the École normale supérieure.

He was a student there between 1980 and 1985, leaving with the top French teaching qualification in philosophy (agrégé de philosophie).

In 1987, he was awarded the degree of PhD for his thesis "Diderot and Metaphysics" at the Paris-Sorbonne University, which was published in 1997 with the title "Diderot or the Philosophy of Seduction".

On the night of 4 February 1989, he became separated from his companions during an expedition to the Ahaggar Desert and, in the vast expanses of the Sahara, he underwent a spiritual experience that was nothing short of a divine revelation.

In that instant, he says that his mind was filled with the words "Everything is justified".

Schmitt believes that it was that extraordinary experience that enabled him to break into writing.

During the 1990s, his plays brought him rapid success in several countries.

Don Juan on Trial was the first to be performed in September 1991 at Espace 44 in Nantes.

His next play, The Visitor, won three prizes at the Molière Award Ceremony in 1994.

It was then that he decided to devote himself entirely to writing, and he gave up his lecturing position at the University of Chambéry.

In 1996, Enigma Variations received its first performance, starring Alain Delon and Francis Huster in the lead roles.

In 1998, his play, Frédérick or Crime Boulevard (Frédérick ou le boulevard du crime), opened simultaneously in France and Germany, with Jean-Paul Belmondo acting in the original production at the Théâtre Marigny.

In the early 2000s, he wrote several novels and short stories.

Published in 2000, The Gospel According to Pilate, a novel about Jesus Christ told from the point of view of Pilate, won critical acclaim and massive sales.

In 2001, Mr Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran (M. Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran) was both staged and published in France and Germany.

He has lived in Brussels since 2002 and obtained Belgian citizenship in 2008.

Schmitt spent his military service teaching at the Saint-Cyr Military Academy, afterwards spending two years as a student teaching assistant at the University of Besançon.

He went on to teach at the high school in Cherbourg before being appointed lecturer at the University of Chambéry, where he taught for four years.

He then wrote a whimsical and satirical version of the Faust myth, When I was a Work of Art (Lorsque j'étais une oeuvre d'art – 2002).

The tales that comprise his Cycle de l'Invisible have delighted readers and audiences in the French-speaking world and beyond, both on stage and in the bookshops.

In 2004, the book sold over 250,000 copies in France and 300,000 in Germany.

Schmitt has also written three one-act plays for humanitarian causes.

Francis Huster played the devil in The Devil's School (L'École du diable), which Schmitt wrote for an Amnesty International evening.

One Thousand and One Nights was written for the "Culture Changes Life" campaign (La culture ça change la vie) organised by the French charity The People's Aid (Secours populaire).

He describes it in his novel Night of Fire (La Nuit de Feu), published in September 2015.