ATLAS OF REMOTE ISLANDS
Saint Paul Island
(France)
Indian Ocean
38° 43' S | 77° 31' E
FRENCH Île Saint-Paul
7 km2 | uninhabited
ON 18 JUNE 1871, the English post ship HMS Megaera runs aground on one of the natural gravel sea breaks at the entrance to the crater. The shipwrecked crew struggles ashore, and is greeted by two Frenchmen. They come from the island of Bourbon, and do not speak a word of English. // One of the two men calls himself the governor. He is thirty years old and lame in one leg. The other man, who introduces himself as the subject, is five years younger and in excellent physical condition; he is a splendid climber, for whom no cliff face is too steep. He readily shows the stranded men round the island while the governor crouches in front of a hut at the edge of the crater. The subject refers to him without exception as a very good man. The governor unfailingly describes his subject as a thoroughly bad man. Never have two people been more suited. They live together in a tiny wooden hut with a small collection of French books. The two of them have been inseparable for an eternity. Their task is to watch over the four small boats lying in the flooded basin of the crater, and to register whalers – for a monthly wage of forty francs. But almost no one ever lands here, in an area feared for its terrible storms and thick fog. // Ducks, rats and wild cats are the only edible animals that live on the island, and apart from a spinach-like leaf, only moss, ferns and dry grass grow here. Once a year, large colonies of penguins come to lay their eggs in the sparse tufts of grass between the rocks. The enormous birds have white breasts, grey backs, bright pink eyes and golden feathers on their heads. They are not afraid of humans, but their flesh is not good to eat. // It is said that there used to be a mulatto living here with the Frenchmen. The good man and the bad man are said to have murdered him and eaten him up, and to keep all that remains in the very same hut that the governor watches over, day in and day out.
Courtesy of Judith Schalansky and mareverlag, ©2009 mareverlag, Hamburg; ISBN 978-3-86648-683-6
~~~
The crews on board the racing yachts of the Ocean Race whiz past the world's most remote islands without ever setting foot on them. Would they like to land there one day?
In her "Atlas of Remote Islands", Judith Schalansky takes us to islands "where I have never been and never will be". The author tells the absurdly unfathomable stories of these isles in a way that only reality can imagine.
Judith Schalansky has designed several of her books herself and received design awards for them. Both her "Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln" and "Der Hals der Giraffe" were honoured with the 1st Prize of the Stiftung Buchkunst. in 2021, her book "Verzeichnis einiger Verluste" was longlisted for the International Booker Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award. Judith Schalansky's books have been translated into more than 25 languages.
© mareverlag, Hamburg
Acquire article rights