Writer, journalist and traveller, Sylvain Tesson is France's 'most brilliant travel writer' (L'Express). After a world tour by bicycle in 1993-1994, he developed a passion for Central Asia, and in 1997 he crossed the Himalayas on foot. For seven months in 2003, he followed the journey of escapees from the Gulag, which brought him to international prominence with his remarkable travelogue, Axis of Wolf. Consolations of the Forest won the Prix Medicis in 2011.