About The Author Dominique Lapierre enjoy worldwide fame as the author of several best-selling books on modern history, including Freedom at Midnight, and Is Paris Burning? Dominique began life as a journalist, working with Paris Match, a magazine that brought out well-researched, in-depth articles. He met Larry Collins, an American journalist, in Paris and in tandem they jointly authored books for over twenty years. A Thousand Suns, a collection of stories written by Dominique Lapierre, bears the stamp of the essence of their writings: the quality of not making judgements but bearing witness to events. A large portion of their acclaim is undoubtedly due to the unprejudiced stance adopted in their works. Having rechristened Kolkata as the City of Joy' in his path-breaking book by the same name, Dominique Lapierre, after a meeting with Mother Teresa in 1981, set up the City of Joy Foundation with the royalties from his book's earnings. Providing education for Kolkata's slum children, and funding Udayan, a centre for children from leper colonies, became a mission for the author. Aided by his wife, coincidently also named Dominique, Lapierre's humanitarian projects are widespread in rural Bengal and the Sunderbans. Post Five Past Midnight in Bhopal, he built a clinic in Bhopal. In the past twenty-five years, Lapierre has rescued over ten thousand handicapped and leprosy-suffering children; cured four million TB patients; provided over five hundred tubewells of drinking water to villages, launched four hospital boats in the Ganges delta to take medical supplies to the isolated populations of 34 islands. For his writings and philanthropic work, Lapierre has been decorated with the Legion of Honour of France, the Rainbow Peace award of the UN, the Grand Cross of Social Solidarity of Spain, the Medal of Honour of the Chamber of Depties of Italy, and twice the US Christopher International Award whose motto is: Rather light a candle than curse the darkness'.