Novel
Advocate of the Isle
Le Notaire des Noirs
Loys Masson · 1961
Synopsis
On the island of Mauritius, an old man looks back on his youth, when he was destined for the practice of his uncle, the notary Émile Galantie. The uncle and his wife Marthe, a childless couple, take in André, aged seven, whose father has had to leave the island for Madagascar after embezzlement; the child awaits his return, which is to sound the hour of revolution. The young man chooses to help the oppressed blacks rather than his rich white clients.
Context
Published in 1961 by Robert Laffont, the novel received the Prix des Deux Magots in 1962 and was reissued in 2000 by André Dimanche. It follows Les Tortues, of 1956, which had made the author known. Henri-Jean Coudy points out a society in which class distinctions coincide with origins, against a background of crisis in the sugar cane industry, famine and demonstrations, as well as the figure of an impostor, Captain Bruckner.
Who it is for
For reading a Mauritian novelist settled in France, on the native island he had left in 1939.
Prizes and reception
Éric Dussert, in Le Matricule des anges, credits the author with a singularly powerful talent.