Small Boat cover art

Small Boat

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

$8.99/month after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 29 July 2026 at 11:59 AEST.
More purchase options

Small Boat

By: Vincent Delecroix, Jeremy Harding, Helen Stevenson -translated by
Narrated by: Ethan Reid, Rachel Atkins
Get this deal

$8.99/month after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends on 29 July 2026 at 11:59 AEST.

Buy Now for $18.15

Buy Now for $18.15

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025

In November 2021, an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the United Kingdom capsized in the Channel causing the death of 27 people on board. Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British waters and had to call the British authorities for help. By the time rescue vessels arrived on the scene, all but two of the migrants had died.

The narrator of Delecroix’s fictional account of the events is the woman who took the calls. Accused of failing in her duty, she refuses to be held more responsible than others for this disaster. Why should she be more responsible than the sea, than the war, than the crises behind these tragedies?

A shocking, moral tale of our times, Small Boat reminds us of the power of fiction to illuminate our darkest crimes.

©2025 Vincent Delecroix (P)2025 W.F. Howes Ltd. Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Refugee Studies Social Sciences Specific Demographics World Literature
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most relevant
This very brief explores and the real tragedy involved in the sinking of a migrant Boat but more importantly explores the banality of evil and the ineffectiveness of a series of bureaucracies and remaining human in the face of the constant on slot of tragic circumstances. The narrator is excellent and the writing precise highly recommend.

Devastating and well written

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.