Robert Merle (Tébessa, 1908 – Paris, 2004) was a prolific novel and theater writer. He studied in Paris and obtained PhDs in Letters and in English, with a doctoral thesis on Oscar Wilde. He carried out his professional work as a university professor. In 1939 he was mobilized as a soldier in World War II and at the Battle of Dunkirk he was taken prisoner by the Germans. This stage marked much of his literary work. With his first novel, Week-end à Zuydcoote (1949), an autobiographical story about the absurdity of war, he won the Prix Goncourt.