Dominique Lapierre

From the Wikipedia page

Dominique Lapierre (born 30 July 1931 in Châtelaillon, Charente-Maritime, France) is a French author.

Among other books he wrote Once Upon a Time in The Soviet Union (Il était une fois l'URSS, 2007), ISBN 978-81-216-1247-0 — chronicles a 1956 journey he took across the Soviet Union with Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini