''L'Encyclopédie du savoir relatif et absolu'' or ''Livre secret des fourmis''. English: ''The Encyclopedia of Absolute and Relative Knowledge'' Also known as ''L'ESRA'' by readers, this book by

Bernard Werber Bernard Werber (born 1961 in Toulouse) is a French science fiction writer, active since the 1990s. He is chiefly recognized for having written the trilogy ''Les Fourmis'', the only one of his novels to have been published in English. This se ...

is actually a dictionary of things ranging from bread recipes to the explanation of the number "

Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation Positional notation (or place-value notation, or positional numeral system) usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (or ...

". The book is a copy of the (fictional) testament of Edmond Wells, uncle of the main character from the book '' Les Fourmis''. The book is titled ''L'Encyclopédie du savoir relatif et absolu'' and is revealed article after article in the ''Ant Trilogy'' ('' Les Fourmis'', '' Le Jour des fourmis'' and ''La Révolution des fourmis'') as well as in the '' Nous les dieux'' trilogy. It is a collection of little-known facts, as seen from a physical, philosophical, metaphysical and many other fields. It contains a certain number of errors and

Urban myths ''Urban Myths'' is a British biographical comedy drama television series first aired on 19 January 2017 on the Sky Arts. Each episode featured a story surrounding popular culture which may or may not be true, ranging from Muhammad Ali talking ...

. The book was published in 1993 () and was illustrated by Guillaume Aretos. It has since been republished many times, notably under the names ''Livre secret des fourmis'' in 2003, and ''Nouvelle Encyclopédie du savoir relatif et absolu'' in 2009.

External links

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''L'Encyclopédie du savoir relatif et absolu'' online
An Encyclopedia created by fans based on the book, maintained by Bernard Werber. 1993 French novels Novels by Bernard Werber Science fiction books French science fiction novels {{1990s-sf-novel-stub