Book Review: "Small Boat" by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson

“Empathy,” I said to the police inspector, “is an idiotic luxury indulged in by people who do nothing, and who are moved by the spectacle of suffering. Good for them. But the truth is you can’t do both at once.”

This novel, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, was inspired by a real tragedy. But other than the incident itself, the book is a work of fiction.

In November 2021, 27 of 29 people died when the inflatable dinghy they were traveling in capsized in the English Channel. The dinghy’s passengers were all migrants, traveling from France to the United Kingdom in order to claim asylum.

Numerous passengers called the authorities for rescue. French authorities told the passengers they were in British waters and needed to be rescued by the British Coast Guard. But because the French authorities received so many calls for help, they mistakenly believed there were multiple boats in distress. By the time rescue vessels arrived on scene three hours later, all but two people were lost.

At the core of this story is the unnamed French naval officer who answered all of the calls for help. In addition to her completely botching the rescue, she was recorded commenting to her colleagues, “I didn’t ask you to leave. It was your idea, and if you didn’t want to get your feet wet, love, you shouldn’t have embarked.”

What was interesting about this book was its discussion of empathy, and its raising the question of what you would have done. The fact is, the officer was trained not to have opinions but to treat everyone equally deserving of help, although the migration issue was very controversial. I felt like the book repeated its arguments over and over, but it really did make me think.