“The purpose of the book was to stay ambiguous... to produce ambivalent feelings,” says author Vincent Delecroix, speaking about Small Boat, his searing and poetic novel – which Dua has chosen as her July Monthly Read for the Service95 Book Club.
In this month’s Book Club interview, Vincent joins Dua to discuss the real-life events behind Small Boat. Set against the backdrop of divisive politics and broken asylum systems, the book centres around a chilling true story: in 2021, a small inflatable dinghy carrying 29 migrants began to sink in the middle of the English Channel, at night, far from help. “They were in the middle of the Channel, in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere – with no one,” Vincent says. “It was four hours of agony. Four hours dying in the middle of the sea.”
After hours of unanswered distress calls, 27 migrants died. What makes this tragedy especially haunting is audio recordings from that night – conversations between those desperately seeking help and the French rescue operator, who failed to act. Through the novel, Vincent explores the ethical grey zones surrounding their deaths – which he shares with Dua. “It was difficult to say whether I was justifying the operator’s actions or passing harsh judgment,” Vincent explains, referring to the operator from whose perspective the book is told. “People were quite divided about it.”
One line in particular became the basis for the novel’s opening: “I didn’t ask you to leave. I didn’t ask you to be there. So let me do my job,” the operator said. Vincent adds, “What struck me was the indifference. The way she spoke revealed something almost inhuman.”
Small Boat captures the deep moral discomfort of our time – where silence and distance too often stand in for justice. It’s a sobering, powerful reminder of the cost of indifference and the thin line between fiction and reality.
Watch Dua’s full interview with Vincent here
Or, listen to the interview with the Service95 Book Club podcast here
