Le Chercheur d’or

Inspired by the adventures of the author’s paternal grandfather, Léon Le Clézio, Le Chercheur d’or (The Prospector) is set on the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues. Driven from their estate at Boucan by bankruptcy and a cyclone, the narrator, Alexis L’Étang, has only one desire left: to fulfil his father’s dream by finding a corsair’s treasure hidden on Rodrigues Island, evoking the Saint-Brandon archipelago, “a paradise on earth” where pirates came to take refuge and die in the eighteenth century.

“Le Chercheur d’or is an adventure and coming-of-age novel akin to Stevenson’s Treasure Island, in which Jim, the hero, sets sail to find a treasure buried on an island. The initiation begins with a break from the world of childhood (…) and summons several literary myths, including that of Paul et Virginie and Robinson Crusoe, (…) in a quest for spiritual truth and inner harmony in the face of the beauty of the world.” (B. Chahine, Dictionnaire Le Clézio)

“Literature is a form of adventure, whose ending and outcome are unknown, but which can be extended, made to swerve, by writing. (…) My grandfather never found the treasure — he said so in one of his letters — but he put everything back exactly as it had been, so that someone else could take up the search. He was a dreamer, but a meticulous dreamer, who left behind a very detailed plan of a world that does not exist.” (interview with Augustin Trapenard, 21 cm, 2018)

Slight trace of sunning in the upper margin of the first leaves (over 3 mm).