Michèle Rakotoson was born in Madagascar. Writer and playwright, she was also a journalist and head of literary events at RFI. In 2012, she was named Commander of Malagasy Arts and Letters, and received in 2012 for all of her work the great medal of the Francophonie, awarded by the French Academy.
“1894, France is preparing to invade Madagascar. Félicien Le Guen, full of desire for adventure, leaves his Brittany to join his contingent on the Big Island. Tavao, slave, carrier in Ambatomanga, lives, during this time, in the tenacious fear of an imminent war. Pain torments the Malagasy people, withdrawn into the silence of the gods. When Queen Razafindrahety finally organizes a counter-offensive to defend her lands, Tavao joins her master in battle. Far from her wife, pregnant, he is confronted with the horrors of the war. Félicien Le Guen, as for him, undergoes the strategies of the high Parisian civil servants, unaware of the consequences of an attack during the rainy season. Under a moist and burning heat, in the As the haunting crossing of forests and swamps infested with mosquitoes resonates, the cry of these young soldiers crushed in the vice of a nascent colonization resounds. (Presentation of the Atelier des nomades editions)