Wind, Sand and Stars , which appeared in 1939, won the French Academy's 1939 Grand Prix du Roman and the National Book Award in the United States. Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, which is to be what one is and no other. In 1940 he escaped to the United States, and was criticized by his countrymen not to support de Gaulle's Free France forces in London. The book has been translated into near fifty languages. His plane disappeared - he was shot down over Mediterranean, or perhaps there was an accident, or it was a suicide.
Later news tell, that the bracelet was probably a forgery.
The narrator is a pilot who has crash-landed in a desert. He meet a boy, who turns out to be a prince from another planet. The prince tell about his adventures on Earth and about his precious rose on his planet. He is disapointed when he discovers that roses are common on Earth. A desert fox convinces him, that the prince should love his own rare rose and finding thus meaning to his life, the prince returns back to home.