This writer, shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, Miguel Bonnefoy (Venezuela/France) returns with L’inventeur, a new novel that has something of the quixotic about it and which brings to life the figure of Augustin Mouchot. Practically unknown today, Mouchot was a mid-19th-century French inventor and pioneer in the use of solar energy, who managed to create a machine able to produce a block of ice using only the light of the sun. However, his extraordinary achievements were buried by the economic interests involved in the coal trade. In conversation with Orlando Mazeyra, the author will talk about this striking figure, whose inventions could have completely transformed the course of history as we know it.
