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Small Boat

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025

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Small Boat

By: Vincent Delecroix, Jeremy Harding, Helen Stevenson - Translator - translator
Narrated by: Rachel Atkins, Ethan Reid
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Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize

In November 2021, an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the United Kingdom capsized in the Channel causing the death of 27 people on board. Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British waters and had to call the British authorities for help. By the time rescue vessels arrived on the scene, all but two of the migrants had died.

The narrator of Delecroix’s fictional account of the events is the woman who took the calls. Accused of failing in her duty, she refuses to be held more responsible than others for this disaster. Why should she be more responsible than the sea, than the war, than the crises behind these tragedies?

A shocking, moral tale of our times, Small Boat reminds us of the power of fiction to illuminate our darkest crimes.©2025 Vincent Delecroix (P)2025 W.F. Howes Ltd. Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Social Sciences World Literature
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It tackles a very emotional and difficult topic really well. I felt a whole range of emotions in just a few hours, like fury, and helplessness, and the book certainly has a strong impact. Covering empathy, and lack thereof, dehumanisation, and guilt through a topic that is sadly very relevant today, it's a definite recommendation to give it the short few hours it has.

Extremely emotional and captivating story.

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A deeply humanising and harrowing read. Small Boat is a must read for everyone. Highly recommend.

Harrowing

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