The Child Thief

Jules Supervielle (1884-1960) - a French poet, prose writer, and playwright, one of the most significant authors of the 20th century.
Above all, Jules Supervielle is a remarkable poet, highly valued by such world classics as Rainer Maria Rilke, Jorge Luis Borges, and Joseph Brodsky, who included Supervielle in the mandatory reading list for his students as one of the ten best poets of the 20th century. He remains a poet even in his prose works: his prose, deeply poetic and exceptionally beautiful, addresses the depths of the reader's soul.
The novel "The Child Thief" is among his most read books. The main character, Colonel Philemon Bigua, abducts children to make their lives better and brighter. He is a lawbreaker and at the same time a loving, generous, and magnanimous father, a happy yet suffering man, a quirky individual who appears both funny and tragic. The novel demands a moral choice from the reader, urging honesty with oneself and to look into the hidden corners of one’s inner world.
In Russian, the novel is published for the first time; earlier, a collection of novellas by Supervielle titled "The Child of the Waves" was published by the Text publishing house.