Romain Sardou

Romain Sardou began life on 6 January 1974 at Boulogne-Billancourt. Born of a long line of artists, singers, actors, writers, he developed a passion at an early young age for opera – he was just ten years old when he discovered his fascination for Wagner. This precocious love led him to the discovery of the theatre, then literature. His infatuation for reading quickly gained precedence over his love of music. He grew up among the works and lives of great authors whom he cherished. This passion is almost all-encompassing and was to stay with him for life.

He left the lycée in the year before graduation with the firm intention of becoming a playwright. He enrolled in theatre classes – which he followed for three years – in order to better understand the mechanics involved in the art of stage craft and more clearly discern the acting profession. In parallel he engaged in numerous “writing exercises”, all aimed at the theatre. Unsatisfied, he settled in the country for four years during which he built up his book collection and read voraciously the works of historians. He then left the country to work for two years in Los Angeles, where he wrote scripts for children.

He eventually came back to France where he got married and wrote a successful first novel — Forgive us our Sins — (280.000 copies sold in France while the book was translated into twenty foreign languages). Two years later, The Spark of God, an ambitious novel based on the concept of time, conquered a large readership too.

Romain Sardou, 31, is the father of two children. He wrote the beautiful tale entitled One Second before Christmas for them…