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 but one desire: to fulfil his father’s dream by finding a corsair’s treasure hidden on Rodrigues, 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 a novel of adventure and initiation akin to Stevenson’s Treasure Island, in which Jim, the hero, sets sail to discover 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 or of 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 end and outcome remain unknown, but which one can prolong, or send off course, by writing (…). My grandfather never found the treasure — he says so himself in one of his letters — but he put everything back exactly as it had been, so that someone else might take up the search. He was a dreamer, but a meticulous one, leaving behind a highly detailed plan of a world that does not exist” (interview with Augustin Trapenard, 21 cm, 2018).

Binding designed by Renaud Vernier and admirably executed by Claude Ribal.