René Barjavel, born on January 24, 1911 in Nyons (Drôme) and died on November 24, 1985 in Paris 14e, is a French writer and journalist, also scriptwriter and dialoguist of cinema. He is mainly known for his science fiction or fantastic novels in which is expressed the anguish felt in front of a technology that the human being does not control any more.
Certain themes recur frequently in his literary work: the fall of civilization caused by the excesses of science and the madness of war, the eternal and indestructible character of love. His writing is poetic, dreamlike and sometimes philosophical.
Ashes, Ashes has been written during the German occupation of France, features a protagonist who distrusts progress and advocates a return to the land. He founds a new agricultural civilization over which he wisely, albeit autocratically, rules. The story is a dystopia revealing the author's pessimism about the use of scientific progress and technology by humans.