Introducing a refreshing young French voice to English readers, this
slim novel is both a riveting love story and an examination of
humanity's assault on the natural world.
After a seven-day journey on the South Atlantic Ocean aboard a lobster
boat servicing Cape Town, Ida arrives on the island of Tristan. In the
little island community, a village nestled on the slopes of a volcano
whose only limits are the immense sky and the ocean, her bearings are
gradually shifted as time slowly begins to expand.
When a cargo ship runs aground near a neighboring island, spilling
massive amounts of oil, there is suddenly frantic activity in the town.
Ida eagerly joins a team of three men who go to the small island to
rescue oil-drenched penguins. One night, one of the men walks her back
to the cabin where she is staying. They experience a night of love that
continues to grow on the secluded island. For two weeks away from the
world--the sea is rough, no boat can come to pick them up--the dance of
their bodies and their all-consuming love is their only horizon.
Following the rhythm of the ocean and the untamed wind, Clarence Boulay
brilliantly gives flesh to a dizzying sensation of sensual abandonment.
Tristan raises emotional sails and upends all certainty.
