1786

Atlantic Ocean.

The 'Tender Amelia' is sailing from Europe through Africa to the New World.

She is carrying hundreds of newly minted slaves on board.

And also tons of gold.

All interests will collide on the sea routes: those thirsting for power, wealth, personal freedom and the unattainable peaceful life.

The French Revolution is just around the corner.

5 reasons to buy the book 'Alma. The Wind Rises:

• A historical adventure novel about coming of age set in the late 18th century, on the eve of the French Revolution;

• The text is structured in such a way and the destinies of the characters are so intertwined that it is impossible to tear yourself away from reading until the end;

• Significantly changes the understanding of Europe and the foundations of the European economy of the New Age;

• An extremely honest conversation about the slave trade;

• A new novel by France's most famous writer, Timothee de Fombelles.

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR:

Babelio: What would you say to the reader in a few words about 'Alma'?

Timothee de Fombelle: This is the great adventure of Alma, an African girl who leaves her happy valley at the end of the 18th century and finds herself in the whirlwind of the Atlantic, slavery, piracy, plantations... Many other destinies converge around her: that of a young treasure hunter, the daughter of a shipowner from La Rochelle, but above all, the family of my young heroine, scattered along all the shores of the ocean.

Babelio: In Alma, in addition to reconnecting with a genre in which you had already demonstrated your talent in the historical novel Vango, you explore a very painful part of world history: the slave trade. Where did the desire to talk about this period come from? In this novel, did you somehow try to understand for yourself how this could have happened?

TM: The desire to tell this adventure arose in me as a teenager, when I was living in Africa. When I was 13, visiting the forts on the coast of Ghana where captives were shipped to America, I felt this terrible reality, something I could touch, had never existed in my imagination. For me, it was a shadow over History, but until it colonized my imagination, it didn't have the scale of the millions of lives taken. It took me a very long time to figure out how to write this book.