Men's Winter

In the documentary novel Men's Winter, French journalist and writer Lionel Duroy tells the story of his alter ego, the writer Marc, and describes his encounters and interviews with the inhabitants of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were more or less connected to General Mladić's army. In winter, in the mountains above Sarajevo, in villages cut off for several days by heavy snowfall, he is met with an equally cold reception and suspicion, which contrasts with the warm and open nature of Serbs as described in tourist guidebooks.

Lionel Duroy was born on 1 October 1949 in Bizerte, Tunisia. He was one of ten children from an aristocratic but impoverished family. His youth in this environment profoundly influenced him and became the fertile ground for several of his books (Priez pour nous, Le Chagrin).

Lionel Duroy first worked as a delivery man, a courier, and a labourer, then as a journalist for the newspapers Libération and L'Événement du dimanche. Since the publication of his first novel in 1990, he has devoted himself exclusively to writing novels with an essentially autobiographical content. He speaks of his mother, of the family traumas linked to his father's war injuries, and the expulsion of his family from Tunisia in 1955.

His novel Men's Winter (L'Hiver des hommes) won the Prix Renaudot des Lycéens in 2012 and the Prix Joseph Kessel in 2013.