The plight of the migrant: Crossed Lines, by Marie Darrieussecq, reviewed

‘We should be living in a brave country and on a brave planet that bravely distributes its occupants,’ thinks Rose Goyenetche, a middle-class, middle-aged Parisian child psychologist and the heroine of Marie Darrieussecq’s Crossed Lines.

The story unfolds on a Mediterranean cruise ship, where Rose is holidaying in a deluxe cabin (‘that is, economy class’) on an all-inclusive-without-alcohol-without-wifi package sponsored by her mother as a chance for Rose to get some perspective on her life. When the ship comes across a rickety boat full of refugees who are taken aboard, Rose gives a young Nigerien (not Nigerian) boy named Younès her son’s phone (she needs hers for professional reasons). As their hands touch, she feels a familiar electric ping of friction, and from this point, their futures become linked.

Darrieussecq’s descriptions are precise and startling and her observations penetrating.