Small Boat: Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025 - Softcover

Delecroix, Vincent

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1913109372 ISBN 13: 9781913109370

Publisher: HopeRoad, 2025

Synopsis

'This book challenged me profoundly. It moved me, and stayed with me ... it's an essential story that needs to be heard' DUA LIPA & Service95 Book Club

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize

In November 2021, an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the United Kingdom capsized in the Channel causing the death of 27 people on board. Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British waters and had to call the British authorities for help. By the time rescue vessels arrived on the scene, all but two of the migrants had died.

The narrator of Delecroix’s fictional account of the events is the woman who took the calls. Accused of failing in her duty, she refuses to be held more responsible than others for this disaster. Why should she be more responsible than the sea, than the war, than the crises behind these tragedies?

“Vividly translated by Helen Stevenson, and currently on the shortlist for this year’s International Booker prize, Small Boat is painful, compelling and mercifully short, with a powerful undertow.” TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

“A vital and powerful novel that speaks to the core of our humanity. A parable for our time.” AMANDA SMYTH

“Shattering and unflinching. This is the most important novel you will read this year.” LUCY ROSE

About this title

About the Author

Helen Stevenson studied Modern Languages at Oxford and has been translating French to English for 25 years, including Black Moses (shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize). She is also the author of Mad Elaine and Love Like Salt: A Memoir. After living in France for many years, she now resides in Somerset, UK. Her translation of Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, published April 2024, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025.

Edition details

• Publisher: HopeRoad
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1913109372
• ISBN 13: 9781913109370
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160