The Camp of the Saints (1973) - Jean Raspail

 

The Camp of the Saints is a French dystopian novel I probably would have never heard of if Amazon had not "accidentally" decided to quit selling it on April 17, 2026. From what I remember, audio and e-book copies of the novel continued to be sold by Amazon even after the paperback edition had been removed from the site, but the resulting backlash was immediate and loud. Within hours, the physical copy of The Camp of the Saints was available again - and it would be hard for Amazon to convince anyone that it all happened because of some kind of fluke in their system. 

So my curiosity was aroused, and I decided to get a copy to see what all the fuss was about. 

The Camp of the Saints is a book about the end of Western society as we know it when the West allows itself be overwhelmed by the influx of roughly one million impoverished migrants from India who arrive on the southern coast of France on the same morning aboard a fleet of decrepit ships. 

So is this a racist novel or is it simply a prophetic one that warned the Western world about something that was already inevitable in 1973? The answer is yes. The Camp of the Saints is eerily prophetic - and it uses racism and racist terms to make its key points. Take this passage, for instance:

"You're nothing to them, you and all you stand for. Your world doesn't mean a thing. They won't even try to understand it. They'll be tired, man. Tired and cold. And they'll build a fire with your big wooden door. And they'll crap all over your terrace, and wipe their hands on your shelves full of books. And they'll spit out your wine, and eat with their fingers from all that nice pewter handing inside on your wall. Then they'll squat on their heels and watch your easy chairs go up in smoke. And they'll use your fancy bedsheets to pretty themselves up in. All your things will lose their meaning. Your meaning, man. What's beautiful won't be, what's useful they'll laugh at, what's useless they won't even bother with. Nothing's going to be worth a thing." 

 In the end, first France and then the rest of Europe (with Switzerland being the last holdout) are quickly overwhelmed by sheer numbers and the violent refusal of the migrants to be stopped, or even slowed down, by those with the responsibility for protecting the borders of their countries. If Jean Raspail had stopped there, his novel might not have received the backlash it suffered when first published in 1973. The legitimate claim that The Camp of the Saints is overtly racist comes primarily from the way that Raspail portrays the Indian migrants. He treats them as one undifferentiated mass, every one of them portrayed as filthy, disease ridden animals interested only in filling their stomachs and having sex with whomever is handy. 

The Camp of the Saints is a shocking novel, but it is not a particularly well written one. Its translated prose is difficult to read, all of its characters are pretty much despicable, and its legitimate message is smothered by Raspail's racist take on mass migration. I don't really recommend wasting too much time on this one unless your curiosity about why Amazon attempted to throttle its sale in the first place makes it worth your while to find a copy. I don't regret reading The Camp of the Saints, but I found it to be a huge disappointment.