Novel
À l'autre bout de moi
Not translated into English
Marie-Thérèse Humbert · 1979
Synopsis
In a small island world where origins and beliefs mingle, twin sisters grow up side by side: Anne, close to their mother, and Nadège, full of life and fancy, who adores their father, charming, boastful and a drinker. When the mother dies, the trio seems close to coming together again, until the day Nadège tells her sister she is expecting a child by a young Indian, and Anne tells her of her hatred.
Context
The author's first novel, published in 1979 in Paris by Stock, the book received the Grand Prix des lectrices d'Elle in 1980 and was reissued in paperback in 1992. The Île en île site stresses that it departs from the discourse of the time to examine the unease, fascinations and identity negotiations of a multi-ethnic society, and holds it to be a milestone of modern Mauritian literature.
Who it is for
For reading, through two twins, the novel of the mixed identities and social hierarchies of Mauritius.
Prizes and reception
The Store norske leksikon sees in it a striking portrait of people of both French and Mauritian descent.