The unique story of the exploitation of wallabies as told through the eyes of a wallaby.

True: for 40 years, wallabies lived in France, in the Rambouillet forest. First imported by a Swiss zoo, then offered to a lord of the Yvelines, they were welcomed in the Sauvage Reserves (you couldn’t make this up), before escaping during the storm of December 1999. Back in the wild, they flourished – and reproduced.

This novel is the story through the centuries of the relationship between the exploitative human and the exploited animal, told by a wallaby who has never known Australia. We meet, among others, Jumbo the elephant, famous for having carried nearly a million children on his back, including Churchill and Roosevelt, as well as the recent “new pets” that unscrupulous owners are reselling on the Internet.

A shocking book, with a unique point of view and devastating humor.

Antoine Philias was born in Cholet in 1990. His previous novel Plexiglas, published in 2023 (Asphalte Poche, January 2025), won the Prix du Deuxième roman de Grignan. He has also published notably a children’s book co-written with Alice Zeniter (Home Sweet Home, L’école des loisirs). Antoine currently lives in Rennes, where he is a bartender.