The Bridge of Hope

In *Le Pont de l'Espérance*, the author meticulously depicts the social changes - both obvious and subtle - brought about by post-colonial modernism at every level in Madagascar. In the story, these changes are forced upon the farmers of the Marovoay plain - then the country's second-largest rice-growing region, having regained its independence on 26 June 1960 - against their will and despite their best efforts. The young Republic of Madagascar, for its part, was only 11 years old in 1971. Begun in the final days of spring 1971 at the Cosmos International Hotel in Brazzaville, on the banks of the River Congo, the manuscript of this work was completed eight days later, on 11 July 1971, at the family home of Mr Anriamanganiaina RABENASOLO. All the issues raised within it were seething within RANDRIANASOLO-RAVONY himself, and were just waiting to be put down in writing so that they might be known to the world and, above all, to his compatriots. The narrative is punctuated with free verse, born of the author's abundant, sharp and caustic wit; he was also a Malagasy-French poet. Since that date, the text has undergone no alterations, not even minor ones, and it is thus presented, in its entirety, to the reader.