The history of humanity is conformed, over the centuries, in a magical melting pot between science, beliefs, technology and cultural heritage in constant rapprochement. Ideal for authors like Eric Marchal make the historical fiction his particular setting where to focus those aspects that make his narrative a differentiated space, a differentiated reading. Above all for laying the foundations of this evolution in some of the aspects that arouse the most interest as authors.
For Marchal, or at least for his literature, what is relevant is the scientific or technological drivers of change. Evolutionary leaps or changes of epochs around which to build those intra-histories of the revolution, the transition, the dispute of the visionaries and avant-garde against the reactionaries and the immobilists.
In the past, science or medicine should first pass through the filter of morality. In fact, this is still the case when addressing issues today around genetics or euthanasia, for example. But in the past it was even more recalcitrant for having to advance against those who had unique standards, far above any popular assessment. Hence Marchal's plots are charged with a magnetic tension.
Top 3 recommended novels by Éric Marchal
Where dreams are built
Andalusia, June 1863. Clément Delhorme, a passionate astronomer, and his wife Alicia live in Granada, where she works on the restoration of the Alhambra with the architect Rafael Contreras. Clément is obsessed with flying a huge balloon that will allow him to fly through the skies when a young engineer, Gustave Eiffel, arrives in the city. Soon, the two geniuses realize that they are not only united by their passion for progress, but also by a strong temperament and limitless ambition.
Despite his recent fatherhood of triplets, Delhorme will not stop his aeronautical research, while advising the young Eiffel, who intends to build a bridge in Portugal that crosses the Duero. Supported by this family of brilliant artists and scientists, and in the seclusion of the magical gardens and wonderful fountains of the Alhambra, the destiny of Eiffel will be forged, who, years later, will build the famous Parisian tower and the Statue of Liberty .
The sun under the silk
The epic of a charismatic itinerant surgeon who, guided by the ambition to revolutionize medicine, finds himself doomed on a hectic adventure in which love, passion, war and courtly intrigues are not lacking.
At the end of the XNUMXth century, one of the smallest states in Europe, the Duchy of Lorraine, recovered from the French occupation and the harsh years of war. Nicolas Déruet, a traveling surgeon imprisoned after a surgical procedure in which the patient died, is forced into exile in the coalition army fighting against the Turks.
During the war, Nicolas attended to atrocious wounds on the battlefield and expanded his knowledge of medicine, an experience that would allow him, upon his return to the capital, to continue developing the art of surgery at the Saint-Charles hospital, and defend without giving up his profession and his honor.
From the fields of Lorraine to the Hungarian steppes, from military hospitals to the luxury of royal palaces, this is the extraordinary destiny of a man devoted to his passion for surgery and divided in his love by two totally different women: the midwife Marianne. Pajot and Rosa, the Marchioness of Cornelli.
A fascinating historical fresco, meticulously re-enacted, in which Éric Marchal brings us closer to the sharp scalpel of his hero, Nicolas Déruet, to novelize an exciting theme: the fierce rivalry between doctors and surgeons in Europe at the beginning of the XNUMXth century.
The rebellious hours
A vibrant novel, set in traditional England at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, that pays tribute to those who rebelled for their ideals and, especially, to those pioneers who fought for women's rights.
London, 1908. Despite the tension that is breathed under the reign of Edward VI, the germ of the revolution beats in the streets of London. While the old world clings to its ways, a brave young suffragette, an attractive mestizo doctor, and an eccentric aristocrat give themselves up to defend their ideals of equality between men and women, between rich and poor. On their risky path to a more just society, they will face two seemingly unbeatable enemies: the established power and a mysterious character nicknamed The Apostle.
