
Zaboravit ću supruga, zaboravit ću oca i majku. Sve ću zaboraviti. Samo nikad neću zaboraviti to popodne. Tek sam toga popodneva postala ženom. Sa četrdeset pet godina sam otkrila što žena može osjećati kad je s muškarcem. Nikad prije nisam to mogla ni zamisliti. Nikad prije nisam doživjela takve osjećaje – ni s dvojicom mojih prijatelja, ni sa suprugom, nikad, ne, nikad. Ove riječi izrekla je Amerikanka Roberta Collins nakon druge boce šampanjca svome suputniku u vlaku koji jurio od Pariza k Azurnoj obali, sjećajući se svojega ljubavnika, slikara Pierrea Mondragona, hrleći mu nakon deset godina u ponovni zagrljaj koji će, mislila je, trajati vječno... Nakon velikog uspjeha svojih obimnih romana (Sanjaj nemogući san, Ljubav je samo riječ, Afera Nine B.) jedan od najpopularnijih austrijskih književnika Johannes Mario Simmel iznenadio je čitatelje kratkim romanom u kojem je ispričao prekrasnu ljubavnu priču o slikaru Pierreu Mondragonu koji je na Azurnoj obali zarobio srca mnogih žena. On je bio muškarac koji je volio žene – a žene su njegovu ljubav znale cijeniti.
Author

Johannes Mario Simmel was an Austrian writer. He was born in Vienna and grew up in Austria and England. He was trained as a chemical engineer and worked in research from 1943 to the end of World War II. After the end of the war, he worked as a translator for the American military government and published reviews and stories in the Vienna Welt am Abend. Starting in 1950, he worked as a reporter for the Munich illustrated Quick in Europe and America. He wrote a number of screenplays and novels, which have sold tens of millions of copies. Many of his novels were successfully filmed in the 1960s and 1970s. He won numerous prizes, including the Award of Excellence of the Society of Writers of the UN. Important issues in his novels are a fervent pacifism as well as the relativity of good and bad. Several novels are said to have a true background, possibly autobiographic. According to his Swiss lawyer, Simmel died on January 1, 2009 in Lucerne, at 84 years of age.