''Who Will Remember the People...'' () is a 1986 novel by the French writer

Jean Raspail Jean Raspail (, 5 July 1925 – 13 June 2020) was a French author, traveler, and explorer. Many of his books are about historical figures, exploration and indigenous peoples. He was a recipient of the prestigious French literary awards Grand Pri ...

. It tells the history of the Alacalufe people, a largely extinct South American tribe, throughout the centuries. The two main characters reappear in each generation. The native name of the Alacufs is "Kaweskar", which means "the people". Raspail had met members of the tribe in the early 1950s which had made an impression that stayed with him. The book was published in English in 1988, translated by Jeremy Leggatt. It received the Chateaubriand Prize and the Inter Book Prize.

Reception

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (born September 13, 1931) is an American author. She has published fiction and non-fiction books and articles on animal behavior, Paleolithic life, and the !Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. Early life and education ...

reviewed the book for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', and wrote that Raspail "seems rather critical of the Kaweskar, calling them seafarers who 'never even invented the sail,' having them perform unlikely, pointless acts (impotently throwing a stone in imitation of a cannonball, for example) and describing their food from a European viewpoint, which certainly makes it seem disgusting." Marshall Thomas was positive about the author's negative portrayal of Europeans, especially that of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

: "Mr. Raspail's portrait of him deserves applause". The critic continued: "The victims and their oppressors seem equally squalid, ignorant, pathetic, as the two groups inexorably re-enact the age-old pageant known as Man's Inhumanity to Man". Marshall Thomas questioned Raspail's decision to portray an already extinct nation, rather than one at the risk of vanishment: "Yes, the last Kaweskar has gone to heaven, and we're sorry. But what about those like him who remain here below? They want to live. They too are 'The People.' Remember them?" Jack Schmitt wrote in ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'': "In two recent works,

Bruce Chatwin Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, ...

(''

The Songlines ''The Songlines'' is a 1987 book written by Bruce Chatwin, combining fiction and non-fiction. Chatwin describes a trip to Australia which he has taken for the express purpose of researching Aboriginal song and its connections to nomadic travel ...

'') and

Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...

( ''El Hablador'' (''The Speaker'') ) convincingly draw the reader into the soul-life, the Earth-bound myths and legends of the Australian Bushmen and the Peruvian Machiguengas, respectively. Raspail is far less successful in a parallel attempt with the Alacalufs, and the fault is not in Jeremy Leggatt's translation, which is excellent. Despite that limitation, Raspail's story, inscribed in the dialogue of cultures so characteristic of our age, is a fine version in historical fiction of a true story loud with ethical reverberations."

References

{{Jean Raspail 1986 French novels Books about Native Americans French-language novels Novels by Jean Raspail Novels set in Chile Indigenous culture of the Southern Cone Kawésqar