Szesnaście na Bourbon

Sixteen of Bourbon Island is a gripping novel that begins in the year 1673 when, on the orders of King Louis XIV, 16 women are taken from the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris – a workhouse for women deemed ‘undesirable’ by society – and sent to Bourbon to marry French colonists and populate the island. Bartosz Sadulski blends historical facts with satire, magical realism, and a sober critique of imperialism to create what he has called ‘a postcolonial, feminist cloak-and-dagger novel’.

The ship sets sail with its cargo of women and barrels of brandy on an epic voyage that passes through the Canary Islands and Madagascar. The vessel’s cast of characters includes a despotic captain, an eccentric missionary with utopian dreams, a suspected heretic, a girl rumoured to have died in 1661, and a diabolical cat whose presence hints at uncanny forces onboard. Despite the 16 women’s diverse backgrounds, solidarity emerges through their shared experiences during the perilous voyage. Ultimately, only a few will reach the island to begin new lives.

Although carefully researched and based on real events, Sixteen of Bourbon Island is not a classic historical novel. Its digressive narrative structure is reminiscent of One Thousand and One Nights, and it has been compared stylistically to postmodern works by writers such as Thomas Pynchon and John Barth. Above all, it presents a solid critique of gendered violence and colonial exploitation in which bodies were treated like currency, while raising questions about whose voices are ultimately heard in the telling of history.