Equatorial mournful bird

Author: (French) Yves Malaterre, translated by Peng Weichuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-02-01
Features: That great crowned crane observed the forest carefully from the top of a cassia tree. It watched a buzzard soaring in the sky, gazed at a francolin entangled in dry reeds, saw a heron torn to pieces by a giant lizard because it couldn’t escape the chirping of small birds, witnessed green monkeys playing dangerous games by the waterlogged, and despised crocodiles with its cleverness. But a clumsy monkey’s scream reminded the uneasy and stubborn troop that everything has its limits. This plant-eating crowned crane, a king of the forest, controlled it alone. It was so bored that it felt numb. It screamed to express its dissatisfaction, flew and circled in the canopy, landed on a main branch of a gmelina tree, and pecked at the fuzzy yellow fruits with its hook beak. The Sad Bird of the Equator was one of France’s best-selling books in 1998 and was also a finalist for the French Médicis Prize. The novel tells the story of French archaeologist Pierre Doss, who flees an unhappy love affair and seeks refuge in an unnamed small village near the equator, where he meets his female student, Julie. Julie’s lover is the leader of a local sect, and various conflicts arise, all witnessed by a mysterious giant bird. After reading this novel, people feel: it should be made into a movie. Because it has all the elements of a box-office hit: love and desire, blood and fire, unique exotic charm, mysterious African folklore, and the beautiful yet bizarre natural scenery of the equatorial region.