The Prospector (41 page)
Authors: J.M.G Le Clézio
I'm going to go down to the harbour to choose my ship. This is the one: it's slender and light, it's just like a frigate with immense wings. Its name is
Argo
. It slips slowly towards the open seas over the dark, twilit waters, surrounded by birds. And soon it is sailing through the night in the starlight, heading for its destiny in the sky. I'm up on deck, at the stern, the wind swirling around me, I'm listening to the waves slapping against the stem and the snapping of the wind in the sails. The helmsman is singing his endless monotone song all to himself, I can hear the voices of the crew playing dice in the hold. We're alone at sea, the only living beings. Then Ouma is with me again, I can feel the warmth of her body, her breath, I can hear the beating of her heart. How far will we travel together? Agalega, Aldabra, Juan de Nova? The islands are innumerable. Perhaps we'll defy the taboo and sail out to Saint Brandon, where Captain Bradmer and his helmsman have found refuge. To the other side of the world, to a place where neither the signs in the sky nor the wars men wage are feared any longer.
Now night has fallen, deep within I can hear the living sound of the sea rolling in.
J. M. G.
LE CLÃZIO
was born in 1940 in Nice, France. He has written over forty critically acclaimed books and his work has been translated into thirty-six languages. He divides his time between France, New Mexico and Mauritius. In 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Published in hardback in Great Britain in 2016 by Atlantic Books, an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd.
First published in France in 1985 as
Le chercheur d'or
by Ãditions Gallimard.
Copyright © Ãditions Gallimard, 2016
Translation © C. Dickson
The moral right of J. M. G. Le Clézio to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
The moral right of C. Dickson to be identified as the translator of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities, is entirely coincidental.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Hardback ISBN: 978 1 84887 377 3
E-book ISBN: 978 1 84887 385 8
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