Le Silence des Chagos

by Shenaz Patel

Le gardien du port connaît bien Charlesia. Elle passe régulièrement devant sa guérite et se dirige vers le quai. Elle scrute l'horizon, dans l'attente vaine d'un bateau qui la ramènera dans son île natale. Diego Garcia n'est plus qu'un souvenir, la nostalgie douloureuse d'une vie simple, rythmée par la production du coprah, les jeux des enfants, le seraz de poisson-banane et le séga du samedi soir. Depuis des années, Charlesia se heurte à l'incompréhension, aux questions sans réponses qu'elle ressasse, et que lui pose un jeune homme. Désiré pourrait être son fils. Confronté au mystère de sa naissance, il découvre peu à peu le drame de ses parents, et de son entourage.
Les voix de Charlesia et de Désiré sont légères et inquiétantes. Au-delà de leur révolte, c'est le drame intérieur des Chagossiens que raconte Shenaz Patel, leur déportation et leur existence de déracinés à l'île Maurice, depuis que Diego Garcia est devenue une base militaire américaine.

Genres: Mauritius, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Africa, Adult, France, Literary Fiction

154 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Shenaz Patel is a journalist and writer from the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. She has been a Reuter fellow, worked as editor in chief of a political newspaper, before setting up of the arts, culture and society section of one of Mauritius' biggest weekly where she still works as a columnist.

Patel has published four novels, numerous short stories in French and Mauritian Creole, two plays, three graphic novels, and four children's books. She was an IWP (International Writers Program) Honorary Fellow in the U.S. in 2016, and was a fellow at the Hutchins Centre-W.E.B du Bois Institute at Harvard University in 2018.

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the upsides to quarantine is the opportunity to read books from my shelves. This slim read from Restless Books has the same translator as Eve out of Her Ruins, which takes place in Mauritius, a country which ends up playing a role in this novel as well.

Did you know that the people living in the Chagos were forcibly removed in the 60s and 70s? This novel moves before and after that time in fragments of different characters, then ends with more information about the current status of ongoing attempts for descendents of the original people to return home. Surrounding the people is the usual tale of governmental intrigue, countries valuing places for proximity to conflict zones and economic merit over the people residing there.

I happened to be approved for an eARC of a cookbook that had recipes from this region too, so look forward to In Bibi's Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries That Touch the Indian Ocean! I made ambrevades au curry the same day I read this book.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

#ReadAroundTheWorld #Mauritius


This is a heart-rending, poignant story of a group of people forced from their idyllic homelands in the Chagos Islands to suit the whims and behest of the great colonial powers shifting them around like pawns in a very unevenly matched game of chess. Prior to granting independence to Mauritius in 1968, Britain decided to carve the Chagos Archipelago off from Mauritius, as they knew the US would pay highly for this strategically placed piece of island paradise. The US wanted Diego Garcia-unpopulated-as a military base due to its proximity to Asia and the Middle East. So to make this happen 2000 Chagossians were deported to Mauritius and the Seychelles between 1967 and 1973. Since then the Chagossian people have fought tirelessly to return to their homeland.


Chagos Islands. BBC.com

The novel has two main strands. Firstly it follows Charlesia, the woman with the red scarf who stands on the end of the jetty looking out to the sea and dreaming for a ship to take her family back to their island home, back to the coconut plantations, to the simple village life of dancing and sharing food and home-brewed kalou. Charlesia was one of those manipulated into going to Mauritius, then denied the right to return home.

The second story follows Désiré, born aboard the boat, the Nordvaer, which transported many Chagossians, forcefully wrenched from their homeland. Désiré gradually learns about his birth and the sad loss of his people, unable to return to the place of their ancestors. There is a sense of palpable longing that runs through the whole book. It is a whole body experience, in the recollections of sight, sound, taste and even the evocative smell of memories. “​​Even if someone had blindfolded him and put him on the boat without telling him where it was headed, he would have recognized the fragrance of the Chagos…Diego had its own aroma: toasted bark and fresh water, sand and sweat.”

The book ends with an afterword explaining the political machinations involved in keeping the Chagossians from returning home. Despite rulings by the United Nations in their favour, the British have ignored their pleas and the fight continues.

I found this a powerful, moving book written in a poetic, sensory and evocative manner. I can only hope that justice and honour will prevail and the Chagossians are able to return to their beautiful islands.

[Lilisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is surprising that more is not heard about the plight of the Chagossians. This historical fiction is based on a true story. It’s about the more than 50-year fight by the people of Chagos to return to their homeland - the Chagos Islands. It was announced on November 3, 2022 that Britain has agreed to open negotiations with Mauritius over the future of the Chagos Islands. Prior to the independence of Mauritius, the Chagos had been part of Mauritius. The Chagos consists of a group of 56 islands in the Indian Ocean, with Diego Garcia as the main island. Occupying a strategic location in the Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia was and still is a vital base for the United States. In the 1960s when Britain and Mauritius were negotiating Mauritius’s independence, Britain’s nonnegotiable condition was that the Chagos would be carved out and Britain would retain control of the Chagos. On November 8, 1965 the Chagos was separated from Mauritius and became a British Indian Ocean Territory. Mauritius gained independence on March 12, 1968. From 1967 to 1973 between one to two thousand Chagossians were deported to Mauritius and Seychelles to make way for the building of a U.S. military base. Over the years Mauritius has repeatedly stated that the Chagos is part of its territory and that Britain violated United Nations’ resolutions that bans the dismemberment of colonial territories before independence. This book is about the forced deportation of Chagossians from their land. It centers around Charlesia who haunts the quay waiting for a boat to return her home and a young man who was born at sea when his pregnant mother was unknowingly exiled to Mauritius. This is a book to be read for sure. I’ll be watching closely to see how the U.K./Mauritius/Chagos negotiations unfold. Hopefully, it will conclude with a positive outcome and the Chagossians can finally return home.

UPDATE: On October 3, 2024, Mauritius and the U.K. jointly announced that the U.K. agreed to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, with the exception of the Diego Garcia island, to Mauritius. The U.K. government will lease Diego Garcia for an initial period of 99 years so the island will continue to be a U.K./U.S. military base for the foreseeable future.

[Ula]

"That's the memory we have. And memories are all we have now."

people who saw me reading this book on the train had an entire show of my facial expressions varying from disgust to unbelief for an entire ride, i hope they had fun

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple, sorrowful tone runs through this fictionalized account of the removal of the residents of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean, and the pain of exile that haunts those who have lost their homes—even one who never knew it. I learned so much about a situation I knew nothing of and enjoyed the straightforward narrative, ever so slightly magical narrative. a longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2020/06/03/so...

[Lulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great little book, would recommend especially given Chagos situation currently, gives a great backdrop through several perspectives (though maybe would have been more engaging if it hadn’t jumped around so much). Was a bit taken aback when the narrative voice shifted into the perspective of a boat but hey, as you wish.

[Shatterlings · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thought provoking based on a true story read about people moved off their island. It’s based on 3 characters who are loosely linked, the writing about the sea and the island is fantastic, it’s a shame it’s so short.

[Ming · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving and creative story about a place I had never heard of.  The Chagos Islands, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, became a pawn between the UK and the US; both colonizers shine as their usual bad actor selves.  The people of Chagos lose in the geostrategic game.  The "Afterword" describes the controversy that occurred and helps provide context; and it explains why the injustice remains so wrenching.

The book tells a fascinating story about three people who long for Chagos.  Two of them were manipulated and/or forced off the island.  The third was born on a boat that transported the last group of islanders from their home with an hour's notice.

We start by seeing how idyllic life on Chagos had been.  There was a communitarian spirit and the residents rest assured, enjoying nature's bounty.  Unbeknownst to the islanders, powers elsewhere were pulling strings.  The set up is affecting as then this historical event unfolds through the three characters.  

The writing evocatively portrays the characters and events and creates a compelling mood.  By doing so, we come to feel the longing and lost as intimately as the Chagossians.

I found this book engrossing because its simple but poetic language beautifully drew me in.  I'd readily read more from this author.

Few quotes:

The captain had been especially looking forward to reaching Diego before pushing on to Peros Banhos and Salomon, the two other main atolls of the Chagos Islands. Even his ship had seemed eager, determined to race through these seven or eight days of navigating northward, to the center of the Indian Ocean, halfway to the Mozambique Channel, and now, finally, they were in sight of the Chagos Archipelago, which rose up like a dream come true. With each trip he felt as if he were moving from one world to another, as if he were breathing differently, more easily with each nautical mile toward these islands where, if only he could, he would have loved to stay for far longer than these brief sleepovers.

She looked at him. And she wondered. How she should tell him. Where she should start. His birth, the boat, the land, the other land. The real one. The one that spreads outward in her mind and her heart, in her belly and her guts, every night. The land before.
Before fear, incomprehension.
Before loneliness and the sea's wild anguish.
Before the thieving boat that had turned what ought to have been great pleasure into pain.
Before this new land, of high, indifferent mountain, of sneering, distant inhabitants.
Before rage.
Before trying to resign herself to keep incomprehension and impotent fury from exploding into madness.
How should she explain to him, her dearest Desire, about these waters she couldn't hold back?

She knew that even the strongest winds of fury could not clear away clouds or bring back blue skies. But Desire wanted the truth. He had insisted on his right to know. So she made an effort. Not to gather her memories. Those would always be there, deep behind her eyelids, within every cell of her skin, they were simply waiting until she stopped moving, until she took a moment in the day's tumult to breathe, and then they would surge forth anew, more vibrant, than ever.  Not memories, no, beings, places, sensations, feelings far more vivid than her present anesthesia in this valley where her heart beat without any echo.
So Raymonde told. Of the islands where she was born, after her mother, her grandmother, her great-grandmother. Of Chagos Archipelago, a string of islands scattered across the northern Indian Ocean, in the mildest zone, safe from the cyclones' destructive path. Islands where time flowed unhurriedly, as still and sweet as the milk of a tender coconut.

[Rhoda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my read the world selection for Mauritius.

In the late 1960s - early 1970s at the time that Mauritius was negotiating independence from Britain, the British wanted to retain the Chagos archipelago - as the US wanted it for a military base. Unoccupied.

This book is the fictionalised story of two characters from the Chagos who are deported from their home and forced to live in Mauritius - a country that never really wanted them either. The Chagossians were removed from their homeland by two means: surreptitiously (as is the case for the character of Charlesia), or by force (which happens to the character of Desire) and have never been permitted to return.

I really like that this reading project teaches me so many things that I have been unaware of - this book being another of them. This is a well written book that conveys the utter sadness, bewilderment and helplessness of people who have been removed from their homeland without informing them why. The sheer thoughtlessness of how this was done really shocked me.

The transition between the two character’s stories was a little abrupt and initially difficult to follow and a ship having thoughts was a little confusing as it was unexpected, but this is a most worthwhile book to read. Why are such appalling things still happening? 🤦🏽‍♀️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

[Jordan Reinke · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very educational. I loved the raw story.
At times it was a little confusing in the transitions, but it was translated from French so that could be part of it.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is 3.5 for me.

thoughts coming shortly

[J Thayre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review: https://aroundtheworldonefemalenoveli...

[Dave Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

What does it mean to be truly indigenous?

Throughout history, groups of people have found themselves becoming part of a new and unoccupied place. Perhaps, upon arrival, there was no one awaiting onshore or across the river, or at the peak of the climb or the depth of the valley, to greet the new arrival. Does that definitely conclude a place is or always has been uninhabited?

Humans have been a restless and wandering species. Archeological evidence gives weight to the belief that we and our upright predecessors have been roaming the planet for nearly two million years and humans fashioned sailable vessels some 50,000 years ago, launching to sea from Africa to all points where a good wind and a decent grasp of navigation could take us.

According to the oral traditions of the people of the Maldives Islands off the coast of India, they had fishermen and traders who had sailed south and wrecked or fished or briefly hunted in the Chagos Islands hundreds of years ago but they left no artifacts to prove it.

Portuguese explorer Pedro de Mascarenhas encountered and named the principal islands in his 1512-1513 Indian Ocean travels but, appearing economically unpromising, remained uncolonized until the French, who had claimed nearby Reunion in 1655 and Mauritius in 1715 began granting planters license to harvest coconuts in the 1770s. Giving no indication of prior habitation, the French began importing slaves from Madagascar and Mozambique to cull the copra on islands which seemed to be in a geographic sweet spot outside the reach of Monsoons making for pleasant living and profitable growing. Great Britain laid claim to the chain in 1786 but didn't take possession until the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 where control of the archipelago shifted to the English colony of Mauritius.

It was in this period, with the abolition of slavery that the Indian population, perhaps some of Maldivian extraction, bound by indentured servitude, were introduced into Chagossian culture. Except for the few English administrators and shippers who traded on the islands, the Chagossian people enjoyed nearly 200 years of idyllic isolation where work was part time and seafood in absolute abundance.

Silence of the Chagos picks up in the years during the Cold War when the decolonization wave was underway. Mauritius had ambitions for independence and Great Britain had an insistent strategic partner who wanted an isolated presence in the Indian Ocean to control south and west Asia in order to check Chinese and Russian ambitions.

While, at first blush, the flat and featureless Chagos Archipelago didn't appear a rich prize, its flat coral islands and monsoon free environment was a perfect location to house long range bomber aircraft and its deep lagoons ideal for hiding nuclear submarines. From 1968 to 1973, Chagossians who found themselves having to depart the islands for health, education or family reasons to the more urbane Seychelles or Mauritius would discover that there would be no return passage. The failing health of her husband prompted our main character Charlisa to bring the family to the bustling Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, for what she thought would be a short hospitalization. It was when she visited the booking agent for the Chagossian supply ship that she discovered that there would be no return trip.

Silence of the Chagos tells the story of how the hundreds who called the Archipelago home found themselves being forcefully relocated over a five year period, unable to even return as among the thousands of laborers who were brought to the atoll to build the massive American base at Diego Garcia and the sense of loneliness, isolation and despair that became the hallmark of the Chagossian displaced who have spent over 50 years clinging to their unique culture and the chance to go home to a place great powers have argued they have no indigenous claim.

It is this plight of a powerless people facing seemingly insurmountable resistance from the powerful that makes this work translated from French a compelling and sad tale.

Beautifully written and lovingly composed, author Shenaz Patel spins a lovely and heartfelt tale of a people who struggle to find their way home.

This work, from the #BritishIndianOceanTerritory is the 39th in my #readtheworld challenge. And, just added to the pile in alphabetical order will from the #BritishVirginIslands and environmental author #VernaPennMoll

[Dave Rush · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plight of the refugee has been on my conscience. Be it the media, the market (super and economic), these peoples are my neighbors. Their voices echo in my walls at night and their stories line the shelves of my local libraries. As I picked up this little novella I wanted to like it. Yet sadly, the author struggles to decide whether she wants to write a fiction or a commentary on an issue that seems quite important to the world. Unlike other stories dealing with the subject of displacement, such as “Ru”, “Wild Thorns”, or other novels on the subject that I have recently encountered, this story does not have characters to which we become attached. In fact, many of them literally just disappear without any explanation or reason.
Another issue is narrative. Throughout the book are little sets of dialogue in a language that I as the reader can only assume is a native creole of the island. Yet I often am confused if the message is being translated. Finally, there is the ending. We have a small essay of sorts explaining the root of the displaced people. However, it is short and a bit confusing. As a reader, perhaps if I had been introduced to this essay in the beginning of the book (instead of the end) the story would have been more coherent. Overall, it was a fine effort, but the message for me was both figuratively and literally lost in translation!

[Paula Horstman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, sad story based on true events of a displaced island population. Be it due to the short length or lack of character development, I never got really hooked into any one character or, really the story itself. The writing is done lyrically, I enjoyed her syntax and verbiage, but the perspective jumps around often and I found myself a little lost between chapters. You're trying to catch up to who the speaker is.
I can appreciate any writer's intention to bring attention to a serious world affair, which is what this novel does. A fictional story, not all that removed from reality, weaved out of real and true events. As for how the story is -told-, though, I can't say I was gripped by the neck and turning pages. I took a bit to finish the story, for a novel of this length, because I just lost interest.
The afterword is really good though, written in precise, clear language. It was eye-opening.

Overall, an okay story. I wouldn't recommend though. They are other good books out there....

[Glenna L]

My round the world stop #3 (British Indian Ocean Territory)

This novel tells the story of the forcible removal of the people from their Chagos island home, without explanation and with almost no recompense, so that it could become an American military base, and of their subsequent hardships and particularly their unquenched longing to return. It is told from the points of view of three people: a woman who had accompanied her sick husband to Mauritius for medical treatment and was not allowed to return; another who was in the last group of people taken from Diego Garcia and gave birth to a baby boy on the boat which brought them away; and that boy when he became a young adult. There is also a chapter from the point of view of the boat – that one didn’t particularly appeal to me.

It’s a strong novel, emotional and evocative. A chapter on the history of the BIOT and of the struggle of the deported people for justice – a struggle which continues today – is provided as an afterword.

More at https://thecasualbookblog.wordpress.c...

[Jessica Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

The same way you could die from too little food or love: one day your heart catches a cold, and you don't have enough strength to bring it back to life. It slowly, steadily dies out.

　　 　　 　　 　 　　　 　　⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

This was an interesting little novella about a subject I was only vaguely aware of. I'd heard of the Chagos islands, and I knew that the UK was up to no good over there, but I didn't really have any concept of just what had been done to the indigenous population. This was both informative and moving, and written beautifully despite the translation barrier. I do wish this had been longer so that there was more room for the characters to develop instead of simply being bystanders to the tragedy unfolding, although that may have been the author's intention. Method writing, if you will.

(Also wish that there wasn't a chapter from the boat's perspective because huh???)

[Milly Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until I read the winner of last year's Goldsmith's Prize, I had never heard of the Chagos Islands and the forced deportation of the islanders in the 1960s to Mauritius - an incident that made me ashamed of the British government. This sad little novella is a fictionalised account of the removal of this people and the way that the sorrow of exile has affected their lives. The poignant image of Charlesia in her red headscarf standing on the quay waiting for a boat to take her home - a boat that will never come. The contrast between the life on Chagos and life on Mauritius is stark. The afterword in which the author describes the events and how even in present day the struggle is still continuing is worth reading. My only criticism is the dialogue in the Chagossian dialect - I felt that there needed to be some translation. However, a worthwhile read.

[Jacobus Cilliers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shenaz Patel tells the story of the people who were forcefully evicted from Diego Garcia, a small island in the Chagos archipelago somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and moved to Mauritius. She writes well, but the book feels somewhat hastily put together. None of the characters are compelling, and there is little to link the different stories. It should perhaps have been a series of long articles, and is clearly meant as a source of political advocacy for the people of Diego Garcia, who remain in protracted legal battles with world powers. (Their island officially belongs to the British, and it is used by the US as a military base.) Still, she succeeds in telling the human story of injustice and terrible suffering of a small group of people that few of us have heard of.

[Aditi Virmani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading this book, I had no idea about this little groups of islands Chagos, near Mauritius and its sad history. It was heartrending to read the journey of Chagossians who were just given an hour to pack everything and leave their homeland.
Chagos' location was strategic and hence, Americans leased it from the British (since Chagos was a British colony) to build their military base. Little did people of Chagos knew that they will never be able to come back to their homeland and will have to spend rest of their lives in Mauritius, a place which was not prepared to welcome the Chagossians.
One gets to know the painful journey of deportation and uprooting through the eyes of the book's protagonists - Charlesia and Désiré.

[Rey Bux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le Silence des Chagos de Shenaz Patel témoigne des effets de cet échange secret à travers les expériences de déplacement des Chagossiens et l'histoire du malheureux navire qui les a transporté pendant l'évacuation surprise de l'île.
L'auteure fournit un sens clair de la culture chagossienne au milieu de son tracé éloquent de la douleur de ses personnages. Il s'agit d'une exploration émouvante de l'impuissance face aux puissances mondiales.
Les intimidateurs sur le terrain de jeu dictent les conditions car ils savent que les joueurs les plus faibles n'ont pas de monnaie à exploiter. Un récit féroce et évocateur de l'arc étranglé d'un peuple épris de paix.

[Catie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"They all knew, deep down, that nature gave as she wished, that all they could do was simply prepare to welcome whatever they were granted."

"'Memory is a hook digging into you skin. The harder you pull, the more it tears your flesh, the deeper it digs. There is no way to get it out without ripping your skin apart. And the scar that grows over it will always be there to remind you of the rawness of this pain. But you will never stop coming back to that scar. Never ever. Because that's where your whole life throbs. You see, my child, it is even more alive than memory. We call it souvenance.'"

[Daniel Levy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Les Chagos, c'est un archipel d'îles de l'océan indien dont la population a été expulsée au profit d'une base militaire américaine. Et c'est ce qui défile en filigrane dans ce roman; Charlésia arrive de Diego Garcia à l'île Maurice et apprend qu'elle ne repartira pas chez elle, jamais. Puis, elle racontera son histoire à Désiré, qui se demande pourquoi il est si différent des autres Mauriciens.

Si le sujet est émouvant - l'exil forcé est une thématique trop fréquente dans l'histoire humaine - j'aurais aimé qu'il soit encore plus profond dans son analyse politique de la situation. Mais on ne peut rester insensible à sa nostalgie.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A haunting book about a haunted people, the Chagossians, taken as slaves to a cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean and then uprooted again when the place turned out to have utility for grand colonial navies. (The most famous of the islands is Diego Garcia). The sections on Chagossian festivities, a mix of African and Asian flavors, is entrancing.
Surely as shout out to Restless Books is due; as the major publishers all come to resemble each other, we must give thanks to the indies who, like Restless Books, Deep Vellum, Feminist Press, NYRB, and others, continue to make reading a place of adventure.

[Fran Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enlightening little book and kudos to the publisher as well as the author and translator. It is a beautifully packaged paperback, with a high quality cover. Inside, nestled in sheets of poetry is the story of yet another society destroyed by political agreements between people who are not there, who continue to colonize. This time it is first France followed by the USA and th UK. We wonder now and again, where all these poor people come from, and every time, history gives a similar answer. This group however, mY still see justice.

[Anton · Rating 5 out of 5]

An arrestingly beautiful work on an ongoing colonial situation

What if you had lived all your life on an island from which you were suddenly banished from one day, and never allowed to even visit because the US and UK built a military base there? This absurd situation, which is very real and still ongoing, is the backdrop of a story of two displaced persons trying to find their home in a memory that wounds as much as it consoles at the same time. A lyrical work of writing by Shenaz Patel and an evocative translation by Jeffrey Zuckerman.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this historical novel, which introduced me to the Chagos islands and the forced expulsion of its people so the US could build one of its most important military bases, but it felt more like a reflection than a story and left me wanting more. I was just attaching to the characters when the story ended. Missed potential as a novel, but a beautiful, literary introduction to the history of the Chagos nonetheless.

[Sof · Rating 4 out of 5]

This felt like a missing chapter from How to Hide an Empire. That the UK and US were able to deport an entire population to create a military base and even 50+ years later ignore UN and ICJ decrees, continuing to prevent thousands of people from returning to Diego Garcia, is both shocking and unsurprising. Another banger from Restless Books about a completely new topic to me.

[Anna Ruth FL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I didn't know about the forced relocation of the Chagos people before reading this. An interesting and infuriating read. Even the marine sanctuary around the islands is part of the quest to keep them from their home island.

[Ebony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history I had never heard about; the novel made me want to learn more. Indeed "a past that is not yet past" (166).

The sections set in Chagos, giving a sense of life there prior to expulsion, were my favorite in the novel, and the mix of voices and times wasn't forced.