Key points
- French actor Jean Reno has released his second novel, L’Évasion (“The Escape”), dedicated to the subject of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
- The book was published in early April by XO Éditions.
- Reno admitted that he was inspired by real stories of deported Ukrainian children, and that he was deeply shocked by the scale of Russia’s crimes.
French actor Jean Reno has released the second book of his career. His new novel L’Évasion (“The Escape”) is dedicated to the subject of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
The book was published in early April by the French publishing house XO Éditions.
At the centre of the plot is Emma, a former masseuse recruited by France’s foreign intelligence service, the DGSE.
Working undercover, she travels to Siberia to infiltrate a so-called re-education camp for Ukrainian teenagers and to document Russia’s crimes – in particular, the forced detention of children and the imposition of Russian ideology on them.
The actor noted that he was inspired to write the novel by real stories of unlawfully deported Ukrainian children.
It seemed insane to me that these children were being abducted to have their minds washed. I’m not making political statements – I wanted to write a novel about it.
– Jean Reno.
In an interview with Télé 7 Jours, he said he had been shocked by the scale of Russia’s crimes.
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