The Roots of Heaven (French: Les Racines du ciel) is a 1956 novel by the Lithuanian-born French writer and World War II aviator, Romain Gary (born Roman Kacew). It received the Prix Goncourt for fiction. It was translated into English in 1957.[1]
Synopsis
The book takes place in French Equatorial Africa. Morel, a crusading environmentalist, labors to preserve elephants from extinction. He is assisted in the task by Minna, a nightclub hostess, and Forsythe, a disgraced British military officer in search of redemption. The story is a metaphor for the quest for salvation for all humanity.