What became of the white savage / François Garde ; translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins.
Book
Share
Information About
English Pen Award. Prix Goncourt, 2012.
Title
What became of the white savage / François Garde ; translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins.
Artist
Higgins, Aneesa Abbas, translator.
Subjects
Language
English, French
Type
Book
Abstract
In 1840s, Narcisse, a young French sailor is abandoned on the coast of Australia and given up for dead by his shipmates. Seventeen years later he is found living among aboriginal peoples, having apparently forgotten everything of his original identity, including his native French language. Octave de Vallombrun, a well-meaning geographer, takes him under his wing and sets out to bring Narcisse, now known as the "white savage", back to civilisation and to find out what happened during those seventeen years. Observing Nacrisse's struggle to adjust to the ways of the white man, Octave begins to question his assumptions about what it means to be civililised, and to see in a new light the man known as the "white savage".