Moetai Brotherson

Le roi absent

The Absent King

October 1, 2020
Novel
448 pages
130 × 210 mm
19 €
9782367342436
978-2-3673-4243-6

“Littérature” collection

																Moetai Brotherson, Le roi absent
																Moetai Brotherson, Le roi absent

With this first kaleidoscopic two-voice novel, Moetai Brotherson follows in the footsteps of committed Aboriginal writers such as Chantal T. Spitz and Titaua Peu.

He didn’t ask for any of this. The signs, the birds, and that woman who’s been following him since birth. He had demanded nothing from society but the possibility of living in peace, him, the mute child. He had expected nothing from men other than their trust and friendship, he who was struggling in this straitjacket. And this first name, Moanam, which means nothing… Moana is the ocean, so why this “m” too much, like a bad end announced to the story of his life? The Other had not foreseen that meeting this kid would take him so far away from himself, or from the idea he might have of it. He should have been able to control the madness that fills all space like a fluid. But he’s not crazy! No, he can’t be crazy. He can’t be…
Then how do you explain it? To accept the truth is to risk inviting madness. Be careful. Because this “Other”, it could be you…

The author

Moetai Brotherson defines himself as a storyteller. He inscribes stories in History and weaves the threads of reality to those of legends. Child of Huahine, he has been writing since he was fourteen years old. Fascinated by his country and its culture, he nevertheless went into exile in New York. There, he will directly experience the events of September 11, 2001, which will make him return to the fenua. Paradoxically, he writes for the love of orality, the book being only the score of a melody that each reader is free to interpret. A committed citizen, in 2010 he took part in the “O Tahiti Nui Freedom” adventure, building and sending a Polynesian sailing pirogue from Tahiti to Shanghai in the middle of the typhoon season. In 2014, he became deputy mayor of Faa’a, was elected deputy in 2017, and representative to the Polynesian Assembly in 2018.

The edition

Second edition.

October 1, 2020
Novel
448 pages
130 × 210 mm
19 €
9782367342436
978-2-3673-4243-6

“Littérature” collection