A mathematician, novelist, and member of the Oulipo, Michèle Audin explores in her writing the connections between science, history, and literature. Her books of literature and history, on the unnamed figures of the Paris Commune, on the forgotten members of her own family, and on her father Maurice Audin, murdered by the French army in 1957, together weave a body of work that gives voice back to "beings without destiny." In Berbessa. Mes ancêtres colons, which she completed shortly before her death in November 2025, her talent as a novelist and her rigor as a scientist, brought to bear on both her family's history and History at large, confirm a body of work that is inventive and inspiring. It notably addresses the Swiss colonists, a subject also taken up by Lolve Tillmanns in her latest book.