"one of the strengths of Merle’s novels in his ability to evoke the feeling and texture of everyday life as well as high politics". Massie compared the first novel in Merle's series to Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings (Les Rois maudits), another famed French historical novel series, writing "There is a philosophical depth to the novel absent from Druon, for the Brethren are attracted to the Reformed Protestant (or Huguenot) faith ... Though not as gripping as The Accursed Kings, The Brethren never strays, as Druon sometimes does, into the grotesque. It has a credibly human solidity." Toby Clements of The Telegraph wrote, "There are set-piece discussions on the dilemmas of faith that are informative if not the stuff of high drama, and passages on the history of France that can only be made sense of with the aid of a map and a memory for names. But elsewhere there is much colour, and, overall, The Brethren gives a salty and plausible idea of just how different, odd and parlous life might have been." As of 2014, Fortune de France had sold over five million copies in France. References External links Small picture 1908 births 2004 deaths People from Tébessa People of French Algeria Pieds-Noirs French historical novelists French male novelists 20th-century French novelists French science fiction writers 20th-century French male writers Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni Prix Goncourt winners Grand prix Jean Giono recipients French Army personnel of World War II French prisoners of war in World War II World War II prisoners of war held by Germany French escapees Escapees from German detention Migrants from French Algeria to France