André Malraux (Paris 1901 - Crétiel, 1976) was one of Jorge Semprún's great authors of reference. A copy of L'Espoir (Man’s Hope, 1937) accompanied him during his days as a Resistance fighter. The book recounts the exploits and adversities during the first months of the Spanish Civil War, when the Republicans could not yet glimpse the victory of the rebel side.
In the 1980s Semprún was already working on a film adaptation of the novel, which was to be directed by the Polish filmmaker Andrej Wajda. In the end, however, the film was not made due to disagreements between the two men over the depth of the criticism of communism.