Used book – L'Enfant du peuple ancien, Anouar Benmalek

Queensland, northeastern Australia, December 1918. The scent of salty spring. Kader, distraught, gazes at the broken body of his dying wife, Lislei. Strange gods presided over their meeting. In 1870, Lislei, from Alsace, was caught in the bloody turmoil of the Commune, while Kader, an Algerian, was taken prisoner during the Saharan tribes' revolt against French colonists. Both were deported to New Caledonia and managed to escape on the same rickety boat heading for Australia. On board, bound and groaning, was a strange little boy: Tridarir. The last representative of the Tasmanian Aborigines exterminated by Australian settlers, the courageous orphan tries to find the mythical Dreamtime paths of his people...

A breathtaking adventure and love story, The Child of the Ancient People takes the reader to the fringes of a distant humanity, nourished by magical and foundational dreams... This initiatory journey, combined with a deliciously romantic traverse of History, confirms Anouar Benmalek's disarming humanism.

This award-winning book received the RFO Prize in 2001 and the RTBF Prize in 2001.