Michel Edouard Tournier was born on December 19, 1924 in Paris. His parents met at the Sorbonne, where they both studied German. For this reason, Michel Tournier came to be marked by an influence of the German cultural sphere early on. After the war, he studied philosophy at the University of Tübingen, while at the same time taking the opportunity to attend Claude Lévi-Strauss' lectures on anthropology during his visits to Paris. In the 1950s, he worked as a radio and TV producer and also as an editor at a publishing firm. Levi-Strauss' ideas can be noticed in the comparatively late debut work Friday, or, The Other Island (1967, Vendredi ou Les limbes du Pacifique). This book was awarded the French Academy's grand novel prize.