The eight

Southern France, 1790. At the height of the French Revolution, Charlemagne's legendary chessboard, hidden for over a millennium in the depths of Montglane Abbey, is at risk of being discovered. Its pieces contain an intricate enigma, and whoever deciphers it will gain access to an ancient alchemical formula that will grant them unlimited power. To keep them out of the wrong hands, novices Mireille and Valentine must scatter them across the four corners of the world.
Two centuries later, Catherine Velis, a young computer expert, is sent to Algeria to develop software for OPEC. On the eve of her departure from New York, an antique dealer makes her a mysterious proposal: to reassemble the pieces of an ancient chess set.

Cat thus finds herself involved in the search for the legendary chessboard and becomes one of the pieces in this millennial game, played throughout the centuries by kings and artists, politicians and mathematicians, musicians and philosophers, libertines and the clergy themselves. Who is on which side? Whose move will it be next?

Past and present intertwine masterfully in this exceptional thriller by an author revered worldwide, considered the great precursor of Dan Brown's novels.