Salina: The Three Exiles

A son recounts the epic story of his late mother's life in this mythic novel of love, family, hatred, and revenge.

When Salina dies, it falls to her youngest son to tell her story, a story of violence and suffering, vengeance and passion. Exiled three times, the first time as a newborn abandoned outside a village by a mysterious horseman, Salina was taken in and raised by a clan that only ever saw her as a stranger and an enemy to be defeated. Three times a mother, her children born from strife, Salina never knew love, and revenge became her reason to live.


To gain admittance to the cemetery, to a place of peace at last, Salina's son must face up and tell the tale of Salina's ordeals—her rape the most harrowing—in minute detail. He has no choice but to give voice to all that for years fed into Salina's rage.


With this short novel set in an ancestral world, Laurent Gaudé explores a narrative space where time flows to rhythmic rituals, where fate blurs to legend, and secrets become myth.

Praise for Salina: The Three Exiles

"It's a simply superb text, a perfect accomplishment uniting two of Laurent Gaudé's talents, playwriting and novel writing." —Livres Hebdo

"With this sun scorched ode of a novel, [Laurent Gaudé] confirms that he is one of our greatest storytellers." —Philippe Chevilley, Les Echos

"A brief and powerful tale. A striking reflection on exile and vengeance." —François Busnel, France5

"Tenaciously beautiful, this brief epic has the astonishing power of a myth." —Claire Julliard, L'Obs

"Beautiful, powerful, and moving. Between African tale and ancient tragedy, tinged with universal and very modern accents, Laurent Gaudé has written a brief novel that is insanely powerful." —Bernard Lehut, RTL