The Tulip Merchant takes us to 17th-century Holland. The country is in the grip of a strange obsession - a passion for tulips. Rare varieties are sold at unheard-of prices: one bulb of Semper Augustus, the legendary tulip of incomparable beauty, is almost equivalent in value to a palace. In the market, huge fortunes are created and lost in a matter of hours. Closely examining human passions, Olivier Blais, using historical material, subtly describes the mechanism underlying modern financial pyramids. Olivier Blais, a famous French writer, was born in 1970. His books have received prestigious awards, including the French Academy Prize, and have been translated into fifteen languages, including Portuguese, Korean and Chinese. Admirers of historical fiction compare Blais's novels with the best works of Arturo Perez-Reverte ("The Flemish Tablet") and Tracy Chevalier ("Girl with a Pearl Earring").