Saint-Nicolas-des-Marins

Somewhere on the seacoast, the town of Saint-Nicolas-des-Marins spreads out across the map like a cancer. Here, everyone relies on sailors to keep the economy afloat and hearts aflutter. But when the cold sweeps in overnight, the sea freezes, trapping boats and sailors in the ice. Survival is threatened and tensions rise between the townspeople and Nico, the lighthouse keeper, who is a young man of few words whose late mother was a witch. His only companions are Prune, a mute orphan, and Elio Cabale, a butcher from a distant land.

With spring slow to come, the townspeople’s hypocrisy and cruelty reach a fever pitch. Their children begin to disappear, and abandoned orphans, the illegitimate children of passing sailors, suddenly turn up. During an endless winter that pushes everyone to extremes, Nico plans an act of revenge that will spare no one.

In this stunning and powerfully poetic debut novel, Alex McCann borrows from storytelling codes that explore and challenge the logic of exclusion, the perils of conformism, and the tyranny of both tradition and false appearances.