In early 1936, Kazantzakis wrote a novel in French entitled Le Jardin des Rochers [The Rock Garden].

It had been commissioned by Leipzig publisher Grethlein, but the Nazi regime prevented it from appearing in print. It thus first appeared in Dutch translation in 1939; the French text was published later, in 1959.

Immediately after completing Le Jardin des Rochers, Kazantzakis set to work on another French novel, Mon père, which was reworked on Aegina in 1940 and eventually used in Freedom and Death.