Book covers of the first and second books from The Passage of Time series, Paradises Lost (left) and Heaven's Gate.
Book covers of the first and second books from The Passage of Time series, Paradises Lost (left) and Heaven's Gate.
French writer Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt meets and talks with readers at Beijing's JIC Books shop.
The author answers a reader's question at the event.
When French writer Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt had just graduated from university with a doctorate in philosophy and started teaching the subject 41 years ago, the 25-year-old had the idea to write a novel that spans the entirety of human history.
Schmitt, who has won multiple awards, including the Goncourt Prize for short stories, has now published the fifth book out of eight in his The Passage of Time series. The series features a man named Noam, who was struck by a fireball during a thunderstorm at the age of 25, granting him eternal youth. From the Neolithic era to the present day, he journeys through the centuries seeking the meaning of life, and the pivotal events that have shaped the world today.
But more importantly for local fans of the series, a Chinese translation of the second book, La Porte du Ciel (Heaven's Gate), has been published by Citic Press. Recently, Schmitt came to China for the Choix Goncourt de la Chine 2025 (Goncourt Selection of China 2025) and toured cities to meet readers.
Talking about his experience reading the first two Chinese translations of the books, popular podcast host Yang Dayi said he completed them in one sitting.
"It's a great novel and today, in 2026, it's truly an ambitious undertaking to write a book that speaks to all of human civilization," he said while talking to Schmitt at an event at Beijing's JIC Books shop.
Although humans live in different societies, speak different languages and have different religious beliefs, they have one thing in common: after living on the planet for a period of time, they will inevitably perish "like a precious flower" that can vanish at any moment, Schmitt says, and that is "what Noam perceives".
"My goal is to represent such commonalities of all humans as the fragility of life," he adds.
The series involves a lot of writing about history. To guarantee the accuracy of the historical information, Schmitt says that after completing each volume, he gives the book to two relevant history experts for review.
Che Lin, a professor in the Faculty of French and Francophone Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University, included Schmitt alongside Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, Patrick Modiano, Annie Ernaux, Pascal Quignard and Jean Echenoz as representatives of contemporary literature in her 2022 publication, A New History of French Literature. She says, "These authors have unique writing styles that are self-contained, can be studied, but are perhaps impossible to imitate," adding that Schmitt offers an emotional dimension to the human history that he writes about.
Schmitt himself agrees, saying that novelists can explore the subjectivity of ancient people, imagine their likes and dislikes, and even write about the different smells they experienced.
The timeline presented by historians is often interconnected by unfortunate events like wars, but "as a novelist, I can weave together a timeline interconnected by moments of happiness or various feelings of joy experienced by humanity", Schmitt says.
In the novel, soon after gaining immortality, Noam realizes it is a punishment. As Schmitt writes, "How long must this ageless body force me to live?" Yang says this touches on the core issue of the meaning of life, how to tackle life's crises and establish a sense of purpose.
Schmitt explains that Noam endures extreme loneliness, watching those around him go from youth to old age, from life to death, while he remains powerless and eternally young — a significant source of pain for him. The appearance of the female protagonist, Noura, somewhat alleviates Noam's loneliness. However, their immortality prevents them from having children, making them outsiders to the cycle of life.
Discussing Noura's significance to Noam, Schmitt adds that he crafted Noura differently from the traditional European narrative of Eve being created from Adam's rib. "In fact, it is Noura's gaze that gives Noam life," Schmitt says.
In the novel, the first thing Noura says to Noam is, "Don't look at me like that, or I'll get pregnant," implying that their mutual gaze can transform each other and change their lives.
"I believe that the gaze of others can change our relationships with them, change our lives, and help us discover ourselves," Schmitt says. Therefore, "the gaze of the 'other' can allow the life being observed to blossom and give life".
In their conversation, Yang asked the author whether changes in the world and feedback from readers influence his writing.
Schmitt agreed, suggesting that the rise of AI might be humanity's "fourth narcissistic wound (after Copernicus' heliocentrism, Darwin's theory of evolution, and Freud's psychoanalysis)". He noted, "AI might hurt our human narcissism even more deeply because it surpasses us in some ways, potentially bringing unimaginable and powerful forms of harm."
This idea ties in with the contemporary themes of his novel. Schmitt explains that The Passage of Time series uses a dual narrative because, after waking up in the modern era, Noam suddenly experiences a new kind of anxiety previously unknown to humanity: ecological anxiety.
Today, people fear that we might destroy our own planet, a unique concern of the 21st century, he explains. Driven by this anxiety, Noam decides to write a memoir, "recounting how humanity has step-by-step reached this point".
At the end of the event at JIC Books, Schmitt gave the audience a small teaser: In one of the upcoming volumes, Noam will travel to both contemporary and 18th-century China.
Contact the writer at yangyangs@chinadaily.com.cn
