Natacha Appanah, in memory of her Indian ancestors in Mauritius

Natacha Appanah in memory of her Indian ancestors in Mauritius

Nathacha Appanah has published her first novel The rocks of Poudre d’Or in 2003. She is the author, in particular, of Last F=brother and of Tropic of Violence. His work embraces both family relationships, memory, geopolitical and social issues with a sensitive and precise pen. Born in Mauritius and living for several years in France, the writer has received numerous awards including the French Language Prize for all of her work in 2022.

“This poignant tale opens with a flight of starlings whose murmur in a secret language echoes all migrations and especially that of ancestors, who left a village in India in 1872 to reach Mauritius. . It is then the beginning of a great crossing of the memory, which reveals as much the collective history of the engaged Indians as the intimate history of the family of Nathacha Appanah. These coolies came to replace the black slaves and were decked out with a number when they arrived in Port-Louis, the first sign of a terrible dehumanization of which the author describes every detail with precision. But the center of the book is a magnificent tribute to his grandfather, whose beauty and courage illuminate these pages, he who worked like his own father in the cane fields, respecting Hindu traditions but feeling above all Mauritian. The great delicacy of Nathacha Appanah lies in her way, both direct and modest, of recounting her ancestors but also her parents and her own childhood as if memory was fading from generation to generation and the writer’s responsibility was to save it. , to protect her. She signs here one of her most beautiful books, essential. » (Presentation of editions Mercury of France)

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