Description

Originally published under the title The stranded

Winner of several awards, including the First Prize and the Understanding Europe Award

Reviews and press:

Friday:

Assan and his daughter Iman fled Somalia in 1992. Your destination: France. They are among the first to undertake the expensive and hard journey to end war and misery in to escape from home. At the same time, Virgil sets out from Moldova, cramped in the underbody of a truck. The old man holding his hand in the dark dies. Arriving in the promised land, he has to sleep in a hole in the forest, always in panic fear of being discovered... (...) more

Rocks Magazin:

Of course he knew it. Black, Jewish, Arab, Hindu, rich, poor, legal and illegal, everyone knew it – from the slums of Dakha to the mountain villages of the Carpathians.” This refers to "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones. The song connects those who find no refuge… (…) more

During Victoria, Le Point.fr:

The stranded, the first novel by foreign reporter and Capa agency director Pascal Manoukian, invites us to take a fresh look at immigration, at the many men and women for whom exile is simply a question of survival.

Doan Bui, The New Observer:

The migrant is transparent. He melts into the night and the darkness, he has to "live far from the lights, in the twilight, on the fringes, behind the scenes". He knows full well that he is superfluous, he has to disappear in order to survive. Les échoués is the novel of those whom our century does not want to see.

Marianne Payot, L’Express Livres:

Virgil the Bulldozer, Assan the Brave and Chanchal the Poet will linger in our minds for a long time.

The Literary Figaro:

The story is told in a deeply human way. From the inside out. Because there you will find what no camera, no reportage can capture.