Eunice Richards-Pillot returns with a masterful novel, soberly called “Kourou” published by Ibis Rouge. 16 years after “Les Terres Noyées”, winner of the Historical Novel Prize, she delivers a large epic fresco, which skilfully retraces a dramatic episode in the history of Guyana: the Kourou expedition.
The arrival of the ships
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The Kourou expedition was the greatest settlement attempt ever made in Guyana. A real tragedy. Eunice Richards-Pillot writes the big story. In 1763, the French lost the 7-year war and all their colonies, only Guyana and the West Indies remained the crown jewels. The kingdom to regain its lost power, decides to launch a vast slavery-free settlement in South America. It will be in Guyana.
“Kourou” takes us behind the scenes of this decision. His fictional characters meet historical characters, they evolve in a meticulously reconstructed setting. The reader follows the negotiations, meets the Marquise de Pompadour, the Duc de Choiseul in other words, the main actors in this disastrous expedition. The author deciphers the cogs, which led to this disaster. The ideal “recruitment” conditions: distribution of land, food, bonuses….French, Prussians, Austrians, Swiss and above all Alsatians… there are nearly 17,000 to disembark.
“Kourou” by Eunice Richard-Pillot
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As a common thread, the reader follows the combined destinies of several pretenders to exile: a German prince, penniless nobles, workers, each has a story. They don’t know each other, are of different social conditions but for all Guyana is the new Eldorado..
The author describes with great finesse and accuracy the enthusiasm, the motivation but also the vanity and the excessive pride of the initiators of this project. As the story progresses, the flaws in the device appear… The harder the fall. The first convoy left Rochefort in October 1763. Diseases decimated the arrivals. It is massive destruction. The joy and ardor of the beginnings are transformed into a slow decrepitude described with virtuosity by the author.
Eunice Richard Pillot in this historical novel brings the past to life, recreates the atmosphere of a Guyana that has disappeared. The reader is drawn into an epic, adventurous narrative punctuated by poignant life stories. A great novel.