Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the French by Gretchen Schmid

Autissier is one of the most famous sportswomen in France, having sailed around the world four times and has broken several records, the first woman to circumnavigate solo in a round the world race and was twice rescued from the mountainous seas that encircle the South Pole. Now, she has turned her hand to novel writing, and it hardly comes as a surprise that she is pretty good at that as well.

In the Southern Ocean she once waited four days with her wrecked boat before being rescued by an Australian navy helicopter. One wonders whether that during those hours she conjured up the plot for this novel.

It is a modern Robinson Crusoe tale, with its rights being signed up already for movie adaptation. A sailing couple are stranded on uninhabited whaling island, but the relationship with Defoe soon finishes. They are forced to carry out acts of banal violence, including the hunting of penguins and seabirds to survive. The woman who emerges as the stronger of the two and their relationship comes under stress as they are faced with power of the natural world.

Beware of reading reviews that may give spoilers away. Suffice to say, that the second half of the novel does not go where one might expect it to. It becomes a moral dilemma, and begs for discussion on completing it.

Published in French 2015, as a translation in 2023

My GoodReads score 4 / 5