The Island
the tale · its questions · how it was made
There is a fire in this book. At first it means: come and find us. Later it means: this is the way back. The podcast Soigner jusqu’à se briser was the first fire. This book is the second.
Two men are washed up on an island after a shipwreck. One draws maps, the other cuts wood. They do not know each other. One does not want help, just a little. The other does not know how to help, but he wants to be useful. The tale teaches them nothing; it shows them. It was published for people who care for others, who teach, who help for a living, and for the people who live with them.
This book was first made for one reader: ten copies, numbered by hand. Then it was published.
The tale is two thousand words and a twenty-minute read aloud: in a classroom, at the table, in a team meeting. From age ten with an adult, alone from twelve. It is followed by twenty-four questions on three levels, with no answers, and by notes on the making: the pictures were made with an artificial intelligence program, the book says so, shows the ones that were set aside, and asks twelve questions about what that is worth. A free classroom guide takes up every question for teachers.
Pre-order
The Island comes out on 6 November 2026. Pre-orders are open: Kobo · Google Play · Amazon · Apple Books (soon). 5.99 USD, 7.99 CAD. The book arrives on your reader on the day it is published.
On 6 November, the book will also be sold right here, in a single purchase: both languages, PDF and EPUB, no lock.
Rather wait? Leave your address below and you will get the link on 6 November.
Get the link on 6 November
One email on publication day, with the link. At most one more email about this book. Nothing else.
For the classroom
A free classroom guide goes with the book: eight pages, from upper elementary to college, which take up every question printed in the book and say, for each, what the text will support. It gives no answers; the tale contains none. The English guide was copyedited by Paul Carlucci; the French guide is on the French page.
If you read the tale with your students, I would like to know. And if they draw the island, or write a chapter 15, I would like to see it.
For a school, a class or an organization that would like the book for a group: write to Steven.