Novels

Malo — Volume II — The Routes to the East

2026-07-17

Malo — Volume II — The Routes to the East continues the maritime cycle opened by The Secret Routes of the Indian Ocean.

After the coasts of Madagascar, La Vigilante presses further east. Sofala, Goa, Cochin, Malacca — the routes to the East trace a path of trade, powers, Portuguese spies and uncertain crossings. A path of maps, spices and secrets.

Volume II deepens what Volume I had sketched: the geopolitics of the oceans in the sixteenth century, the place of the cartographers, the fragility of alliances, the clandestine circulation of atlases. The reader discovers the great trading ports of the Indian Ocean, the games of power between Portuguese, Malays, Arabs, Chinese and Northern Europeans, and the extreme scarcity of reliable information at that period.

Malo is no longer the same: the worlds she discovers transform her as deeply as the storms she crosses. She learns to read the signs, the languages, the silences of the crews, the glances of the merchants. She gradually understands that the voyage is not only a geographical trajectory — it is an inner transformation.

A map accompanies this novel, published in the editorial log: it retraces the main ports of call of Volume II and prepares the geography of Volume III, The Route of the Rising Sun, in which Malo will pursue her way as far as Japan.