Published on October 12 by Fleuve Editions, Islanova, the new novel by the CamHug duo, authors of the shocking W3 trilogy, is an ambitious and deeply realistic thriller.
Welcome to Islanova, a territory formerly French and now in the hands of ecological activists.
Leny and Charlie are young; they live in a blended family but have fallen in love. As terrible fires ravage the Vosges Mountains, Julian, Charlie’s father, catches them in bed. This leads to the two teenagers running away.
They flee to the island of Oléron to join a ZAD, “Zone to Defend,” led by Vertigo, a charismatic ecological activist who has captivated Charlie.
Once there, life at the ZAD turns out to be different for Leny and Charlie: she integrates well, fascinated by the members of the 12-10 army, while Leny remains wary and does not truly identify with the ecological causes.
But rapidly, the ZAD becomes more than just that, and the activists take control of part of the island, the southern tip, where a gigantic Chinese hotel and commercial complex is soon to open. They declare autonomy, and the ZAD becomes Islanova. However, this coup is not without its price: it aims to sign an international agreement for the construction of a pipeline to transport water to African countries—primarily—where there is none, and where thousands die each day from lack of access to potable water. A noble cause, a commendable and committed project, humanitarian, yet it will be realized through bloodshed.
The CamHug couple offers us with *Islanova*, a new intense and paced thriller; although it is similar in some aspects to the W3 trilogy, this new novel is quite different. And while it includes a multitude of characters and strong, committed themes, the authors go even further this time with this political and ecological thriller, this speculative fiction about a near—very near—future.
Firstly, the plot is deeply rooted in a very concrete reality: it begins on a tragic night in November 2015 that no one has forgotten and is intertwined with current burning issues: migration movements, soil rights, ecology, resource depletion, pollution, increase in natural disasters…
Thanks to these serious themes, *Islanova* cannot be considered a classic thriller, and undoubtedly, its reading will leave no one indifferent.
Additionally, with its complex and ambivalent characters, perhaps a bit more traditional than the astonishing W3 gang, but anything but simplistic, including Charlie, a fiery teenager, and her father, an ex-cop present during the attacks, at the forefront. They give strength to the novel, and all the characters are shaken and impacted by climate changes as much as by the creation of Islanova.
With 784 pages, Jérôme Camut and Nathalie Hug take readers through every possible emotion, anxiety, stress, action, love, friendship. Readers, once again handled roughly by the Camhug duo, will not emerge unscathed from this reading!
Driven at a breathless pace, like a pure shot of adrenaline, Islanova is a brilliant speculative thriller, full of fury, pain, and questions that will need to be answered much sooner than one might think.
