Duvert, Tony - L'Ile Atlantique(1979)

[Simon]

   

Description:
In 1979 Tony Duvert, in order to reach a wider audience and to raise awareness of his ideas, decided to write a novel incorporating his favourite themes, but written in a more classic form than his earlier works. So this book, set on an unnamed French offshore island, is about the everyday life of the many members of a variety of families. (The name means "The Atlantic Isle".) There are so many characters that I found it helpful, while reading, to make a note of the names and characteristics of each, as he or she is introduced. There are nocturnal excursions, home invasions, burglaries, and a couple of boys run away from home. The book was adapted as a television film.

On an island on the Atlantic coast, boys, aged seven to fourteen, live an autonomous existence clandestinely. Coming from completely opposite families, from the son of a market gardener to the son of a notable, their gang engages in pilferage, then regular burglaries, with all the consequences that ensue.