Geneviève Lebrun-Taugourdeau, Rights Manager
"A grand journey into memory with Appanah, who delivers a magnificent tale about her grandparents and the fate of immigrants."

This poignant story by Nathacha Appanah opens with a flock of starlings. Their whisper in a secret language recalls all migrations, especially that of her ancestors, who left a small village in India in 1872 to reach Port Louis, Mauritius.
This is the beginning of a grand exploration of memory, which brings to light both the collective history of "coolie trade" and the intimate history of Nathacha Appanah’s family. The center of the book is a magnificent tribute to her grandfather, whose beauty and courage illuminate these pages. Like his own father, he worked in the cane fields, respecting Hindu traditions but feeling, more than anything else, Mauritian.