José Frèches

Who is José Frèches?

José Frèches is a French historical novelist with novels set in China.

His first trilogy The Jade Disk is a story, set during the Warring States period in disunited China. It tells the story from the character of the rich merchant and eventual prime-minister Lü Buwei - real father of the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang. It portrays the struggles between the other kingdoms and Kingdom of Qin, destined to unite China.

His second trilogy The Empress of Silk is set in Medieval China during the Tang Dynasty. It depicts the story of Emperor Gaozong, the third emperor of Tang and his prominent and ambitious wife Wu Zetian, who after his death, virtually became the ruler of the country and the first female emperor in the history of China.

His latest series The Empire of Tears is set in mid-19th Century China, at the time of the First and Second Opium Wars, when the Qing dynasty is struggling and slowly decaying.