Small Boat

Delecroix’s first novel to be translated into English is based on a real event that occurred November 24, 2021: the attempt of 29 migrants, mainly Iraqi Kurds, to cross the English Channel in a dinghy. Halfway through the journey, the engine fails and the boat slowly sinks. As the boat drifts between English and French jurisdictions, each country’s coast guard denies its responsibility for rescue operations. One of the migrants calls the French radio operator 14 times, only to be told (falsely) that help was on its way and that the refugees should not have left their home countries in the first place. In the end, 27 people drown. The French radio operator, a young single mother, narrates the novel’s first and last sections. Although facing accusations of negligence from the authorities, she refuses to accept blame and feels scapegoated because of what she said rather than what she neglected to do. The middle section vividly portrays the victims’ death at sea.