Priya Hein won the Prix Jean Fanchette Prize 2021, chaired by Jean-Marie Le Clézio, for his novel Riambel. This year, at the third Trou d’Eau Douce Book Festival, the author was invited to speak with Haddiyyah Tegally about her work. The editors fell in love with her manuscript , so touching and profound.
Florence Guillemain
This year’s Trou d’Eau Douce book festival put the spotlight on authors from India and Mauritius. Priya Hein was invited, as were Ananda Devi (who needs no introduction), Perumal Murugan and many others.
Fascinated by books since childhood, the Mauritian author began writing children’s books a few years ago. Then, outraged by the riots following the murder of Gorges Floyd in the United States, Priya used her pen to revolt.
Her novel questions the status of women in Mauritius, as well as the legacy of slavery. Her character Noémie, who lives in a shantytown in Riambel, describes an adolescence lived on the edge of two worlds. The white world, where her mother works as a maid, and her own more miserable world. The style is poignant, minimalist and harsh. This heartbreaking story leaves no one indifferent, and shows a Mauritius mired in a system that, despite the times, remains in a pattern that has changed little.
Last month, the author was awarded the Prix Athéna by the town of Saint-Pierre in La Réunion. Riambel is published in French by Globe and in English by Indigo.
