John Boyne The writer's debut novel, The Eternity Thief, is a fantastic work. This is the story of Mathieu Zel, a man born in 1743 and unable to die. For two and a half centuries, his life is woven into human history: he participates in the French Revolution, organizes the Great Exhibition and the first Olympic Games, helps Charlie Chaplin make films and fights McCarthyism in the United States. And all this time he is trying to find his true love and the meaning of such a long life.