19 euros,
For ages 7 to 77:
From now on, you can place an order by sending a cheque.
19 euros, postage included, for Metropolitan France 20 euros, postage included, for Overseas France 21 euros for the other countries of the European Union, and Switzerland. 23 euros for other countries.
Jean-Pierre Petit BP 55 84122 Pertuis
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In the press:
abundantly illustrated
At nightfall, a large tiger shark attacks and capsizes a fishermen's boat. A young child falls into the water, whom his parents cannot recover and whom they will believe dead. He clings to the fin of a passing dolphin, which belongs to a strange clan that has established its refuge in the mouth of an underground river (identical to the Port Miou hole, whose entrance is located in the calanque of the same name, between Marseille and Cassis, which I explored at the end of the fifties, and which I know like the back of my hand).
The child, Pichoun Peï (in Provençal "little fish") is taken in by a couple of dolphins, "Father and Mother dolphin", and lives with them in a side chamber of the cave, which has a part above water, an air pocket (as is the case at Port-Miou). The tiger, accompanied by his servant, a remora, comes to claim his prey, in vain. The next day the child's welcome within the clan is discussed. He takes his place on the council rock, lit by the light falling from the shaft. An orca and an old walrus missing a tusk vouch for him. This little human will be bought back at the price of a sunfish.
They make him discover all the secrets of the sea. The walrus teaches him the language of all the inhabitants of the underwater jungle, from that of the boxfish to that of the great blue whales, which cruise offshore.
But the child succumbs to the flattery of the lawless people, that of the octopuses, who one day decide to kidnap him and take him to the "iron caves", the remains of a cargo ship wrecked on a reef. He is locked in the emerged forecastle. What the octopuses want: for him to show them how to get this ship going again, so that they can set out to conquer the world and become the most important people of the jungle.
Warned by a seagull friend, the orca and the walrus undertake to deliver their protégé. But the octopuses are numerous and the ship's deck presents itself as a problematic battlefield. They then ask for help from Kraken, the giant squid, who only comes up from the depths at night. At the end of a terrible battle the little prisoner is freed, while Kraken begins a dance that petrifies the octopuses before he devours them.
The years pass. The child grows up. In the meantime the tiger shark has gathered a court among the young dolphins, who no longer listen to the walrus's teaching. The leader of the clan grows old. One day, the latter misses his prey and can no longer, because of this, continue to lead the clan. The tiger sets himself up as a claimant.
The orca and the walrus say to Pitchoun Peï: "We, we will only be able to fight. You, you can do something. Go to the village and bring back the long tooth. It is the only thing the great striped one fears".
Pitchoun Peï goes down to the fishermen's village, not far from there, and steals one of these long spears, that is to say a harpoon fitted with a carved stone point. When the Tiger appears at the Council, he lodges the point in his gills and discredits him before the clan, saying to him "move, even a single fin, and I bleed you on the spot".
The fact that a large part of the young dolphins have followed the Tiger plunges the whole clan into disarray. All scatter. Each goes his own way. Pitchoun Peï decides to go toward his own kind. There, a woman claims to recognize in him the son she lost, long ago. Pitchoun Peï, now a teenager, is admitted by the Village Council and makes himself useful by pointing out the places where the schools of fish are, or by recovering the lost stone anchors.
He listens, amused, to the fantastic tales of Gideo, the oldest fisherman in the village, who describes with great detail the sea beds he claims to know.
One day his dolphin brothers warn him. The tiger shark is back. He has returned with the intention of killing him. But Pitchoun Peï will set a trap for him, and it is he who will overcome his fearsome enemy.
Gidéo turns up, in the midst of this, and claims that the carcass of this shark belongs to him, and that this capture, on the part of Pitchoun Peï, is only an accident. Pichoun Peï receives the help of his dolphin brothers to bring Gidéo back to reason. The latter, terrified, thinks that Pitchoun Peï is a sorcerer and threatens to denounce him to the village. Pitchoun Peï understands the danger. He makes the old fisherman the following proposal: the latter will keep the fins, from which he will get a good price and can, as a bonus, tell that it was he who killed the giant shark. Pitchoun Peï will keep only the jaw, which he had sworn, one day, to place on the council rock.
You will discover the rest of the tale. I leave you the surprise. It is a beautiful story, which I took pleasure in writing. Every day, I wrote a new chapter that I read to Jie, before she fell asleep. I believe a superb animated film could be made of it.