Jamie Sarkonak: I read 'The Camp of the Saints.' Here's why it's relevant |
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Jamie Sarkonak: I read 'The Camp of the Saints.' Here's why it's relevant
The novel, which was temporarily removed from Amazon this week, has long been condemned for its harsh critiques of mass migration
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Jean Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints (1973) is easily one of the most suppressed books of the 20th century. That’s because it’s a dystopian novel about mass third-world migration, a topic still considered taboo to many. While The Handmaid’s Tale and Nineteen Eighty-Four have become regular headliners of “banned book” campaigns and subjects of novel studies in school curriculums, English translations of Raspail’s magnum opus have been so hard to find that used hard copies sold for prices ranging into the hundreds. Until just last year, that is.
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In 2025, the indie heterodox translator-publisher Vauban Books came out with a new, better translation of The Camp of the Saints. Paperbacks were priced at roughly US$25, hardcovers US$40, and, miraculously, they were available on Amazon. All was going well until April 20, when the retailer mysteriously removed physical copies of the book from its American and Canadian storefronts for allegedly violating the company’s “offensive content” policy (though the audiobook remained buyable). Vauban Books raised hell, and a day later, the ability to buy print copies was restored. Amazon attributed the removal to an error.
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