December 12, 2003
Marco Notarianni
THE CHILD OF AN ANCIENT PEOPLE. Anouar Benmalek. Translated by Andrew Riemer.
245pp. Harvill. Paperback, Pounds 10.99.
retour au sommaire de la revue de presse
The Algerian writer Anouar Benmalek's second novel (after his well-received The Lovers of Algeria) is a historical tale about interracial love and genocide in the New World. Set in 1872, the story begins by weaving together three narrative strands, each describing separate events in different parts of the world. Kader, an Arab prince imprisoned by French colonial forces after a revolt by his tribesmen, finds himself deported to New Caledonia, where he meets Lislei, who has escaped the horrors of the Paris Commune. A sequence of brutal events allows Kader to escape and throws him into the Frenchwoman's hands. He pays for them to hide aboard a ship bound for Australia, manned by a band of ruthless men who make a living hunting and selling Aborigines. On this ship is a child called Tridarir, the last survivor of the Tasmanian Aborigines.
Caged and ready to be sold on arrival in Australia, Tridarir manages to escape along with the two stowaways, and together they flee through mainland Australia. As Kader, Lislei and Tridarir stumble along their shared path, they undergo a series of traumatic events which strengthen their relationship while changing them so completely that they can never return home.
The Child of an Ancient People, ably translated by Andrew Riemer, confirms Anouar Benmalek as an exciting voice. He evokes the sights and sounds of the New World, and produces delightful insights on magical reality:
She hurriedly launched into telling strange tales, about emus so much in love with one another that they transformed themselves into giant eucalypts precariously perched on the edge of a cliff, or about the kookaburra, the kingfisher who peals with laughter all day.
The narrative is haunted by the threat of physical violence. Benmalek depicts a world which is raw in its beauty and in its brutality, mirroring the landscape of the country in which his characters unexpectedly find themselves. He strips away the myth of the New World as a place full of hope and new beginnings, free of the shackles of the European past. For Benmalek, the openness and beauty of the landscape conceal darker complexities, like the human soul itself. As Kader watches the cruel sea captain sinking to his death, he muses on the deceptiveness of appearances: "Nothing in the landscape reveals how a seaman, with his last gurgle, must have come to detest all of creation because of what fate dealt him".
Perhaps the novel's greatest achievement is its portrait of the developing relationship between the three main characters, who are bound to each other by mutual dependence and love. The relationship between Kader and Lislei -who begin by hating each other, slowly lose their prejudices and fall in love -seems doomed to descend into cliche. But Anouar Benmalek's writing is more subtle than this. Their original loathing for each other stems from self-doubt.
This fragility brings them closer, and their affection for each other leads to the return of self-respect. It is the child, Tridarir, who links them. His innocent affection for his protectors disarms them, and grounds them in a country where they feel rootless.
The love they begin to feel for him makes them human again, and this return of feeling saves them.
The Child of an Ancient People is a sometimes shocking story of love in a strange land. It is not a comfortable story, but the strength of this strange family rising above the challenges of Australia is an inspiring image. The New World is an unforgiving one, that does not spare the characters, but does not defeat them either.