L’Île

L’Île revisits a theme dear to Robert Merle, who was undoubtedly one of the finest writers at capturing how ordinary men confront unforeseen situations. Week-end à Zuydcoote (in the Dunkirk pocket), La mort est mon métier (in the Nazi camps), Malevil (after an atomic explosion): all these novels tell of men left to themselves, attempting to organize a life in society where survival brutally becomes an imperative and where each man reveals who he truly is. Here, this “robinsonnade” draws heavily on the real story of the Bounty mutineers, named after the English frigate whose crew mutinied against its captain William Bligh on 28 April 1789. This revolt against authority forced the sailors, personae non gratae in England, to settle in Oceania. Once they had found a saving island, the Anglo-Tahitian “colony” made use of both human resources and those of nature, with a concern for preservation and economy.