Writer, publisher, war hero, French government minister, Andr Malraux was renowned as a Renaissance man of the twentieth century. Now, Olivier Toddauthor of the acclaimed biography Albert Camusgives us this life, in which fact competes dramatically with his subjects previously little-known mythomania. We see the adventurous young Malraux move from 1920s literary Paris to colonial Cambodia, Cochin China, and Spain in its civil war. Todd charts the thrilling exploits that would inspire such novels as Mans Fate, but, just as fascinating, he also traces Malrauxs lifelong pattern of lies: claiming friendship with Mao, he was called to tutor Nixon, despite having met the Great Helmsman only once; a minor injury becomes in recollections a near-mortal battlefield wound; stories of heroism in the French Resistance omit to mention that Malraux joined up just a few weeks before the Allied landings. With meticulous research, Todd separates myth from reality to throw light on a brilliant con man who would become a national hero, but he also lets us see Malrauxs genuine achievements as both writer and man of action. His real life and the one he embroidered come together in this superb biography to reveal how Malraux, the protean genius, became his own greatest character.From the Hardcover edition.