An adventure novel infused with the Polynesian culture that takes us up close to the fishermen grappling with the fury of the Pacific Ocean.
Bluff, in the far south of New Zealand.
A stranger pushes the door to the Anchorage bar in the middle of a storm, where fishermen and dockers are waiting for it to pass. The Frenchman has crossed the whole country on foot, the route stops at Bluff, and so will he. He has come for the lobster fishing season in the wild fjords, exposed to the elements. A friendship is born between him and his captain, the old Rongo Walker a respected pillar of the Maori community, torn between his traditions and a modernity where men are perverted by money. Under the gaze of his team mate, the giant Tamatoa, a Tahitian in exile who dreams of returning to his island, the Frenchman is projected into a world where the tracks of the stars, the flight of migrating birds and invisible swells guide the navigators across the Southern Ocean.
« Silence quand il entra, pas un regard sur lui – il aurait pu être un fantôme. Dehors il pleuvait froid, c’était la tempête. Dockers et pêcheurs désoeuvrés : si cette assemblée d’hommes ne vous dissuadait pas, c’est que vous cherchiez
les histoires. On ne poussait jamais par hasard la porte de l’Anchorage Café, surtout en plein hiver austral, quand les rafales soufflées de l’Antarctique tourmentaient sans répit le sud de la Nouvelle-Zélande. On apercevait d’ici la fumée blanche des déferlantes qui saccageaient depuis deux jours les eaux pourtant abritées de Bluff Harbour. Au large, c’était l’enfer. »
