The author was inspired by real events to write this striking novel about a human drama that played out in the English Channel.
Two years ago, a boat full of migrants from northern France was shipwreck while attempting to cross to Great Britain. Of the 29 occupants, 27 died, while one of them spent part of the night calling for help – circumstances which were the subject of an investigation.
The novel features the (fictional) operator of the rescue center who would have received the calls. Questioned by an investigator from the maritime gendarmerie, she must explain the reasons why she made the young man who was desperately calling for help on the line believe that rescuers would come to rescue them, when this was not the case. .
The first part takes us inside her head, as she detachedly recounts the events of that fateful night and seeks to justify her inaction; then we adopt the point of view of an observer who would have witnessed what was happening on the boat, before returning to the operator who questions the real culprits of this tragedy. “I am not the only one watching from afar and sheltered by the endless spectacle, night after night, of shipwrecks,” she said.
One thing leading to another, the author leads us to reflect on the general indifference to the fate of migrants. In writing that sends shivers down your spine, he dares to put on paper what many people think quietly. A novel that resonates like a slap in the face, daring in its form as much as in its subject, and which restores all its seriousness to this terrible news item.
Shipwreck
Gallimard
144 pages