An Impossible Return
Winner of the Prix Maison de la Presse
An epic love story set against a backdrop of injustice, devastating secrets, and the painful price of independence.
It's 1967 in the Chagos Archipelago--a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean--and life is peaceful and easy for hardworking Marie. Her fierce independence and love for her home are quickly apparent to Gabriel, the handsome and sophisticated Mauritian secretary to the archipelago's administrator; it's love at first sight. As these two lovers from neighboring islands welcome a new son, Joséphin, a bright future seems possible. But Gabriel is hiding a terrible secret. The Mauritian government is negotiating independence from Britain, and this deal with the devil will mean evacuating the Chagos, without warning or mercy--a betrayal that will put their love to the test.
Inspired by a shocking travesty of justice, the repercussions of which still reverberate more than fifty years later, bestselling Franco-Mauritian author Caroline Laurent paints a shimmering portrait of island life, a sensual paradise lost, and a gorgeous star-crossed love against all odds.
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Caroline Laurent is the bestselling Franco-Mauritian author of An Impossible Return, winner of the Prix Maison de la Presse 2020, Prix Louis-Guilloux 2020, and Prix du Salon du Livre du Mans 2020. She also cowrote, with Evelyne Pisier, Et soudain, la liberté (And Suddenly, Freedom), which won the Grand Prix des Lycéennes de ELLE.
Jeffrey Zuckerman has translated many French works into English, including books by the artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Dardenne brothers; the queer writers Jean Genet and Hervé Guibert; and the Mauritian novelists Ananda Devi, Shenaz Patel, and Carl de Souza. A graduate of Yale University, he has been a finalist for the TA First Translation Prize and the French-American Foundation Translation Prize and has been awarded a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant and the French Voices Grand Prize. In 2020 he was named a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
"Franco-Mauritian writer Laurent, in her potent English-language debut, overlays a tragic love story onto a powerful account of historical injustice in the Chagos Archipelago...Thanks to Laurent's devastating work, readers will, indeed, have their eyes and hearts opened." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Franco-Mauritian author Caroline Laurent has penned this historical fiction novel based on stories her Mauritian mother told, and [on] her extensive research. The narrative is written in the typical lyrical style of a French novel, which the translator has reproduced faithfully for readers' enjoyment. Life on the islands is portrayed with intimate details of the inhabitants' day-to-day existence, such that one can feel the pain of the indigenous peoples' evacuation for reasons they don't understand." --Historical Novels Review
"While Rivage de la colère is a novel about exile and impossible love, it is nevertheless about hope too. It is an ambitious and sweeping story written with sensitivity that renders a geopolitical and human tragedy through its credible and endearing characters." --L'Orient Littéraire
"A beautiful portrayal of a strong woman...a harrowing novel, stirred with anger, that Caroline Laurent has written with great passion." --Libération
"Caroline Laurent writes about the Chagossian people's removal and anger with finesse and emotion." --Le Parisien
"With a strong show of faith in the power of fiction, Caroline Laurent gives a voice and strength to a forgotten tragedy." --Le Point
"Caroline Laurent writes with empathy and sensuality...She has fictionalized with subtlety and without hesitation." --Le Figaro Littéraire
"A deeply moving story about the heartbreak of exile." --Version Femina
"There's a lot to love--the vulnerability and temerity of the characters, the bittersweet love story, the skillfully braided narrative--but more than anything, the novel is a vehicle for social change....The Chagossian struggle for justice becomes ours." --Asymptote
