A bookshop, a conversation and the meaning of life

Che Lin, a professor in the Faculty of French and Francophone Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University, included Schmitt alongside Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, Patrick Modiano, Annie Ernaux, Pascal Quignard and Jean Echenoz as representatives of contemporary literature in her 2022 publication, A New History of French Literature. She says, "These authors have unique writing styles that are self-contained, can be studied, but are perhaps impossible to imitate," adding that Schmitt offers an emotional dimension to the human history that he writes about.

Schmitt himself agrees, saying that novelists can explore the subjectivity of ancient people, imagine their likes and dislikes, and even write about the different smells they experienced.

The timeline presented by historians is often interconnected by unfortunate events like wars, but "as a novelist, I can weave together a timeline interconnected by moments of happiness or various feelings of joy experienced by humanity", Schmitt says.