Entre deux mondes - Olivier Norek

Having finished the Victor Coste SDPJ 93 trilogy (The Banlieues trilogy in English translation), Olivier Norek has taken in several standalone books in a greater variety of situations. The first, Entre deux mondes (Between Two Worlds), starts out in the complex contemporary real-world of global war, politics and espionage, and the impact it has on ordinary people. It's the kind of thing Gerard Seymour does so well, particularly in how what is happening in the Middle East connects with and touches on our shores. 'Our' meaning the UK but also as far as Norek is concerned and where he finds his own angle on the subject, with France. Where they often meet, in the dangerous crossing between one world and the next, is in the channel between Calais and the English coast.

Entre deux mondes indeed opens with a situation that is turning for the worse in the Mediterranean, between Libya and the planned destination for 273 refugees on their way to Italy, before highlighting another tragic situation taking place involving bodies being uncovered during the dismantling of The Jungle at Calais. Unusually for a prologue, the background to the people involved in both these situations/locations seems immediately connected with the story of Adam in Syria. Adam has been working undercover as a police officer for Bashar al-Assad regime, secretly working against the government and his colleagues. Assisting in the torture of a prisoner who could reveal his identity, he knows it's only a matter of time before his cover is blown and helps his wife Nora and 6-year-old daughter Maya plan an escape to Europe via Tripoli and from there to family in England ("the Youké"), where he will join them.

To say there's a long and dangerous journey ahead is something of an understatement, not just for Nora and Maya as refugees on a boat at the hands of the unknown and untrustworthy migrant transporters, but Adam's position is increasingly precarious. The scale of what confronts them all is painful to imagine, but recount it in all its horror is exactly what we expect of Norek and it's exactly what he does in Entre deux mondes.

The place between two worlds is in 'the Jungle' at Calais, ("ce purgatoire entre deux mondes, l'enfer syrien et le paradis anglais") where a new police lieutenant Bastien Miller has just been posted. It's a tough gig, as he finds out the day before he even officially takes up his post. Not only does he encounter and save the life of a prominent member of a neo-nazi group taking action against the immigrants, but he finds out that the Jungle is a law unto itself, a place where the police never venture. The French anti-terrorist unit however have a man in there working for one of the aid agencies, who is tasked with identifying Ombre, The Shadow, who they believe is recruiting for Daesh. He believes however that his position is now compromised, and seeks help from Adam, who has just arrived at Calais, and not exactly made himself popular with the transient locals.

Norek is an ideal writer for this kind of material. Like Coste in his Banlieues trilogy, he was himself a Captain in the 93 district, has experience of police procedures and the issues they encounter with the multicultural sociey in the suburbs of Paris with clear authenticity. Most importantly however, he knows how to write. The background research is all done here, the author raising and addressing the issues of The Jungle from all perspectives, from those trapped there trying to get across to the Youké, the tensions between the different nations and races, the aid workers, the logistical and moral issues that the police force have to grapple with and the impact it has on them, to the problems the situation causes for the citizens and businesses of Calais. 

All of this, as well as the family backgrounds of the principal characters, is integrated perfectly into the story without ever feeling info-dropped, never pausing or distracting from keeping the central issues from remaining central and compelling, flowing like a movie. There is not a slow or a dull patch, the tension - as Adam adopts a new young charge - incredible. It's measured and meaningful, creating a complex real world dimension, deepening the issues and the moral issues involved, without ever appearing to take a moral or political stance on it. You expect this now in a police thriller from Norek, after the remarkable achievement of Surtensions, but Entre deux mondes takes this further, a superb thriller but one with a heart and a message. It's one that should be made into a film and reach a wider audience, providing - as the best fiction does - an impact and a human truth about the nature of illegal boat crossings that no news or documentary would ever be able to get across in the same way.

Reading notes: Entre deux mondes by Olivier Norek. Published in France by Michel Lafon, I read the Pocket mass paperback edition. Never mind cinema, originally published in 2019 this is a book that is overdue an English language publication.