Small Boat

“As icy as the waters of the Channel on a November night.” La Voix du Nord “The narrator accuses those who judge her of hypocrisy and will only see herself as a cog in the administrative wheel of a France that will not give refuge to the world’s misery. As strong and cruel as the times we live in.” Paris Match “The metaphor of drowning reminds us of the extreme indifference which allows all of us to keep our head above water whilst others drown. The drowning in question is not that of twenty-seven lives but of humanity itself.” Page des libraires ""In Delecroix’s gripping novel, based on a real incident in the Channel in 2021, a troubled coastguard examines her conscience. Was she really complicit in the deaths of 27 migrants at sea during her watch? Perhaps she's a ‘monster’, yet she’s unwilling to shoulder all the blame. If the drowned are lost, then so are the millions of citizens who deplore the round of migrant deaths they see in the news: ‘There is no shipwreck without spectators . . . but not one person looks like getting up to step into the water.’ As she struggles to distinguish personal and collective responsibility, she becomes convinced that when the sea claims a migrant boat, it claims us all."" Jeremy Harding “A gripping story of an everyday monster that shines its light back on us and on our refusals to face what is happening in our world.” —Gillian Slovo “Delecroix’s powerful and timely meditation on this disturbing rhetoric is a damning indictment of apathy in the face of calamity”-Financial Times “Vividly translated by Helen Stevenson, and currently on the shortlist for this year’s International Booker prize, Small Boat is painful, compelling and mercifully short, with a powerful undertow.”- Times Literary Supplement ""Migrants are people too – this intricate novel shows why"" - The Telegraph ""A work of sickening power, it’s won a deserved place on the International Booker shortlist.""-* Daily Mail*