RETOUR DE LOMBARDE / TO THE DEPTHS OF THE SUMMIT – Pascal Rutter

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Author:

Pascal Rutter

Date:

Hachette Fictions
September 2025

Author:

Additional Info

TO THE DEPTHS OF THE SUMMIT

Rights Holder: Hachette Fictions
Original Language: French

When the plane carrying the kidney that could save his son's life crashes in the heart of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region, Inspector Klébert, a former mountain guide, mounts the craziest expedition to recover the organ contained in a refrigerated case.

However, the plane that was supposed to bring him this blessing crashes somewhere in the snowy peaks. Caught in the rush, Klébert will have to plunge back into a world he had fled: that of altitudes, extreme risks, virile solidarity and sometimes fragile mountain men. He will have to assemble a team capable of reaching the wreckage, facing the cold, the snow, the wrath of heaven – and his own demons.

Klébert convinces two young men who have lost their way in society to join him in a secret assault of the summit, to find the plane, despite the life-threatening storm and despite his ailing heart.

Retour de lombarde is a tense, poignant and breathless novel, a race against time and weather, where humanity vacillates between survival, redemption and sacrifice.

Pascal Ruter, born in 1966, is a French author and literature teacher. He currently resides near Fontainebleau and teaches French at a middle school in Milly-la-Forêt. Ruter began his literary career with the publication of Le Coeur en Braille in 2012, which was adapted into a film in 2016. He writes to amuse himself and escape reality, and in his spare time, he plays bass guitar in a rock band and enjoys playing tennis.

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