Return to the Enchanted Island: A Novel

Written by Johary Ravaloson

Narrated by Ron Butler

In this exhilarating prize-winning novel—only the second to be published in English from Madagascar—a young man comes of age amidst the enchanted origin myths of his island country.

Named after the first man at the creation of the world in Malagasy mythology, Ietsy Razak was raised to perpetuate the glory of his namesake and expected to be as illuminated as his Great Ancestor. But in the chaos of modernity, his young life is marked only by restlessness, maddening insomnia, and an adolescent apathy.

When an unexpected tragedy ships him off to a boarding school in France, his trip to the big city is no hero’s journey. Ietsy loses himself in the immediate pleasures of body and mind. Weighed down by his privilege and the legacy of his name, Ietsy struggles to find a foothold.

Only a return to the “Enchanted Island,” as Madagascar is lovingly known, helps Ietsy stumble toward his destiny. This award-winning retelling of Madagascar’s origin story offers a distinctly twenty-first-century perspective on the country’s place in an ever-more-connected world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Translator: Allison M. Charette
• Release date: Nov 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781799749035

Johary Ravaloson

Born in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Johary Ravaloson is an author and publisher living in Normandy. Return to the Enchanted Island, his first novel to be translated into English, won the Prix du roman de l‘Océan Indien. In 2006 he founded Dodo Vole Publishing with his wife, contemporary artist Sophie Bazin, starting a new trend of in-country publishing in Madagascar and Réunion. Ravaloson is also the recipient of the 2016 Prix du livre insulaire and the 2017 Prix Ivoire for Francophone African Literature for his novel Vol à vif. His latest book released in French is Amour, patrie et soupe de crabes. Allison M. Charette translates literature from French into English. She has received an NEA Fellowship in literary translation and a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant, been selected for the Translation Lab residency at Art OMI, and been nominated for the Best of the Net. Her translation of Beyond the Rice Fields by Naivo, the first novel to be translated from Madagascar, was published by Restless Books in 2017. She founded the Emerging Literary Translators’ Network in America (ELTNA.org), a networking and support group for early-career translators. Visit www.charettetranslations.com.

Reviews for Return to the Enchanted Island

[quickmind · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I didn't really get this book. Perhaps it works better for people who are more familiar with Madagasy mythology, but the writing style jumped between the modern day protagonist named Ietsy , and the mythological deity he is named after, who brought life to the island. There wasn't much of a story here, the biggest hook is that our protagonist has insomnia, and that makes him think about his life up until this point. He doesn't do much to garner sympathy for himself, he just kind of bounces through his life. So, even though this book was short, it was hard to read, because the story wasn't compelling and the storytelling itself wasn't clear. Perhaps the allegories here are more evident to someone more steeping in the mythology, but I wasn't. I was just mystified.

[debbie13410 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

DNF after 20% in. It wasn't horrible but I didn't care about the main character. I really wanted to learn more about Madagascar but I only learned about a selfish young man.

[michael5rimmer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The novel slips between the main character's present, his childhood and young adulthood, and Malagasi history and mythology. It's not always clear (to me at least) what parallels or meaning one is intended to draw between these parts, which sit somewhat separately above the surface, presumably joined beneath it. Which is to say, I suppose, that this is a book which requires some work of the reader, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.Water, its ebb and flow, its concealing and guarding nature, and its ability to be both a barrier and a facilitator of journeying is something of a theme, particularly in the mythological sections, and which must (I again presume) have meaning in the main character's life story, named as he is, Ietsy, after the first created human.What I took from it was that our birth culture shapes us, and that while we can rebel and turn from that, to recreate ourselves in our own imagined image, or in the image we absorb from the wider world, we will find more peace in accepting ourselves as formed from that earlier cultural matrix, that we can take responsibility for what it has given to and taken #from us and those around us with a guiltless acceptance.

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Story about privileged people in Madagascar. Money buys everything.

[5eva5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A modern take on the origin story of the Malagasy people. Told in flashbacks, this is the story of affluent Ietsy, named for his people's mythic ancestor and his, implicit, reincarnation. The style is complex but beautiful, with many dreamlike passages and interesting place names. Although the middle portion of the novel is set in France, the Malagasy feel is constant throughout since the mythological, dreamy parts are continuous. It was a little hard to get into, because of style, but it picked up very soon and ended up being an enjoyable read.