Crac

In 1909, at the age of twenty-one, T. E. Lawrence undertook a nearly 1,800-kilometer trek through the Middle East to visit thirty-five crusader fortresses for his doctoral thesis at Oxford. In 2017, more than a century later, Jean Rolin retraces his route and travels to Beaufort Castle, in southern Lebanon, to the Krak des Chevaliers, in Syria, to the Kerak fortress, in Jordan. This tour is the perfect pretext for one of today's most important French reporters to reflect on how time has changed the area - a recurring scene of armed conflicts - and confront us with the vagaries of history. With insatiable curiosity and a bomb-proof sense of humor, Rolin gets a close look at an extraordinary and turbulent territory and, at the same time, a fabulous literary tale.