[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-114448-en":3,"doc-seo-114448-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":11,"is_downloadable":11,"audit_status":11,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},114448,1099514068035,"Ezra","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c",1,"Story & Novel","Portrait of an Island on Fire","Portrait of an Island on Fire presents a series of overlapping essays that trace Mauritius’s entangled histories and the personal consequences of ancestry, privilege, and pain. The narrative confronts colonialism, plantation slavery, indentured labor, and their lasting structures—interwoven with capitalism, race, class, gender, language, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and toxic masculinity. It connects political critique to intimate sources of sustenance such as writing, motherhood, marriage, friendships, and community, while also illuminating the island’s enduring beauty and urgent wake-up-call force.","[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \n‘These overlapping essays form a coruscating portrait of a place and make for a searing indictment of our times. Portrait of an Island on Fire is written with a formidable intelligence and a precisely targeted rage, and comes from a place of passion and of deep love. Ariel Saramandi is a writer of Mauritius and for our whole twenty-first century world; these essays are cris de coeur, they are wake-up calls – they are essays everyone should read.’  \n—Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days  \n‘Ariel Saramandi is a courageous and mesmerizing new voice, a chronicler of contemporary Mauritius whose writing refracts the influences of her Mauritian compatriots, Ananda Devi, Nathacha Appanah and Shenaz Patel in French, Lindsey Collen in English, in a voice which is wholly her own. Portrait of an Island on Fire unpicks the knots of Mauritius’s entangled histories – of plantation slavery, of indentured labour, of colonization, of communalism and patriarchy – laying out the threads which make up her own history of ancestral oppression and structure her lived experience of privilege and pain; which form the fabric of contemporary capitalist Mauritius, and its particular intersections of race, class, gender and language – its politics – and its particular forms of the white supremacy, anti-Blackness and toxic masculinity acted out on the bodies of those without power the world over. Saramandi is laser-focused in her rage, joyful in both her refusal to look away, and in her insistence on what sustains her: writing, motherhood, her marriage, friendships, community – and the beauty of her island.’  \n—Natasha Soobramanien, co-author of Diego Garcia  \n‘With an unflinching, searing clarity, Ariel Saramandi opens the festering wounds that have been sewn shut by silence in Mauritius since the time of colonialism and slavery. This legacy of racism sheds light on new forms of economic enslavement, the consequences of climate warming, abortion rights, old and new misogyny, the utter irresponsibility of successive governments. This important book is both heartbreaking and awake-up call.’  \n—Ananda Devi, author of Eve Out of Her Ruins  \n‘Portrait of an Island on Fire is a fascinating look at Mauritius, a personal account of a homeland told with rage, rigour and love. Saramandi brilliantly, subtly teases out the threads of Mauritian history, politics and culture, honouring both the particularities of this unique place and showing the troubled connections – rapacious capitalism, racism, creeping authoritarianism, right-wing paranoia – that seem to stretch across the whole of our fragile planet. This is a beautifully written book of deep knowledge, righteous anger and fierce hope.’  \n—Lydia Kiesling, author of Mobility  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nPORTRAIT OF AN ISLAND ON FIRE  \nARIEL SARAMANDI  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nCONTENTS  \nTITLE PAGE  \nEPIGRAPH  \nMAURITIUS: A CHRONOLOGY  \nALL MY LANGUAGES  \nAN EDUCATION  \nAN EDUCATION: ÉCRIRE EN C(H)OEUR  \nTHE INHERITORS  \nBANN-LA  \nSNAPSHOTS OFAN ISLAND ON THE FRONT LINE  \nTHERE IS TOO MUCH FEMINISM  \nGETTING RID OF IT  \nPANDEMIC IN NINE ACTS  \nDEATH TAKES THE LAGOON  \nREAL ESTATE  \nTEN YEARS IN POWER  \nNOTES  \nACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  \nABOUT THE AUTHOR  \nCOPYRIGHT  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \n‘I’ve got a cunt plastered over my mouth.’  \n—Virginie Despentes, King Kong Theory, tr. Frank Wynne  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nMAURITIUS: A CHRONOLOGY  \nAround 10 million years ago: Mauritius was formed after a series of underwater volcanic eruptions. Volcanic activity continued until the near Holocene period. Mauritius is still considered an active volcanic region, even if the chances of an explosion in the near future are low.  \nThe Late Middle Ages: Arab sailors crossed the Indian Ocean. They named Mauritius Dina Arobi, but didn’t settle. Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, reportedly heard about Dina Arobi from a Gujarati pilot named Abdul Majid, who may a","cbCaimioRNj9Hw6m","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimioRNj9Hw6m","pdf",1402821,2,258,"English","en",105,"# Mauritius: A Chronology\n## All My Languages\n## An Education\n## The Inheritors\n## Bann-La\n## Snapshots of an Island on the Front Line\n## There Is Too Much Feminism\n## Getting Rid of It\n## Pandemic in Nine Acts\n## Death Takes the Lagoon\n## Real Estate\n## Ten Years in Power\n# Notes\n# Acknowledgements\n# About the Author","[{\"question\":\"What is the main focus of Portrait of an Island on Fire?\",\"answer\":\"The essays examine Mauritius’s layered histories—colonialism, slavery, and later power structures—and how they shape lived experience across race, class, gender, and language.\"},{\"question\":\"Which historical periods are highlighted in the book?\",\"answer\":\"The content includes a chronology starting with Mauritius’s volcanic formation, then Arab and Portuguese navigation, followed by Dutch arrival and colonization, including the treatment of forests and people.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the book connect personal life to political critique?\",\"answer\":\"It frames ongoing survival and resistance through what sustains the author—writing, motherhood, marriage, friendships, community—while using that grounding to confront injustice and 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is the main focus of Portrait of an Island on Fire?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"The essays examine Mauritius’s layered histories—colonialism, slavery, and later power structures—and how they shape lived experience across race, class, gender, and language.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"Which historical periods are highlighted in the book?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"The content includes a chronology starting with Mauritius’s volcanic formation, then Arab and Portuguese navigation, followed by Dutch arrival and colonization, including the treatment of forests and people.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"How does the book connect personal life to political critique?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"It frames ongoing survival and resistance through what sustains the author—writing, motherhood, marriage, friendships, community—while using that grounding to confront injustice and 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