Saint-Exupéry spent 1927-1929 in Africa, working as the head of the intermediate airfield of Cap Jubi on the southern border of Morocco (this airfield is described in “Southern Post Office”); there he finished his first book, begun several years earlier. It was first published in 1929.

Saint-Exupery's first story is still imperfect in many ways. In particular, the love line of her plot turned out to be inorganic for the work of this writer; in general, the plot structure of the book rather prevents the free expression of ideas and problems that worried its author. Nevertheless, many important meaningful motives are already heard here - the motive of human connections connecting the narrator with his friend Jacques Bernis, the thought of the order that a person brings into the world through his activities. The intense (at times not yet clear enough) style of the story foreshadows the style of mature philosophical prose of Saint-Exupery.