The death of French writer Dominique Lapierre at the age of 91 is "heartbreaking", Indian friends of this India enthusiast, author of the bestseller
La Cité , told AFP on Monday.
happiness.
"(Sunday) I received a phone call from the wife of Dominique Lapierre who told me of his death"
, declared by telephone to AFP Brother Gaston who inspired one of the heroes of
La Cité de la joy
.
The novel written with the American Larry Collins, published in 1985 has sold millions of copies and was the subject of a film, directed by Roland Joffé, in 1992.
“I had known him for over 35 years. He visited me many times when he came to Calcutta
”, added the old Catholic priest of Swiss origin, naturalized Indian.
Founder of a charitable organization in Howrah, a town facing Calcutta, on the other side of the Hoogly River, Brother Gaston remembers
“Dominique Lapierre crossing the alleys of poverty and distress at Pilkhana (...) during of his preparatory works for
“
The City of Joy
”.
He was called the silent saint of the Pilkhana slum,”
he added.
Read alsoDominique Lapierre, more human than humanitarian
It was Brother Gaston who informed Abdul Wohab, director of a charity organization near Calcutta, of the death of their mutual friend.
"We are in shock since the news of the death of Dominique Lapierre
," the director of the Southern Health Improvement Society told AFP by telephone, "it's heartbreaking."
According to him, the writer had traveled more
than “35 times to the islands of the Sunderbans, in the Indian state of West Bengal (east), and worked in silence and with great humility for millions of people of the region since 1986.
“We could say he was humbly doing the work of God,”
he continued,
“Lapierre donated most of his copyright from
'
The City of Joy
'
to support the work humanitarian aid in the Sunderbans”.
The widow of the writer Dominique Conchon-Lapierre told the French regional daily
Var-Matin
on Sunday that her husband had "died of old age" and that she was now "in peace and serene since Dominique no longer suffers".
In 2005, the author congratulated himself on the fact that, thanks to his royalties, donations from readers and earnings from lectures given all over the world, his humanitarian action "
had made it possible to cure one million tuberculosis patients in 24 years , treat 9,000 leprosy children, build 540 drinking water wells and fit out four hospital ships on the Ganges delta in India”.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/O4TBLUMCGQRXMJYZUDUJ57WP2Y.jpg)
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
