The first volume in a series of books devoted to an oral history of exile to Europe. Between field investigation and documentary account, Des îles is a work of striking political and literary force.
Des îles are European islands, points of passage which, in the Mediterranean as well as in the Atlantic, have become fortresses, “hotspots”, places of crystallization of the absurdity of European migration policies.
Marie Cosnay, whose work is entirely crossed by the notions of borders and investigations, has for many years been an activist: she welcomes and accompanies exiles who pass through the Basque border. Since 2020, Marie Cosnay has been receiving more and more calls related to disappearances; families are looking for their loved ones who have left on the road, and whose whereabouts they have lost. This is how Marie started her investigation, partly by phone and partly on the ground (mainly in Lesbos, Algiers and the Canary Islands).
Des îles is neither fiction, nor sociology, nor documentary, nor really non-fiction. It is both a cautionary tale, which opens our eyes to the fragmentation of family ties, and a tale of grief, bearing witness to the violence and tragedy that takes place at the gates of Europe.
