Mikai: A Historical Novel

It is 1880. On a large farm estate in the Landes, in southwest France, a secret romance is abruptly put to an end. Dann and Sylvanie, the young lovers, are separated forever. Sylvanie gives birth to a son, Jean-Gustave, who will be brought up away from her, deprived of love and family. No one can then foresee the strange, colorful destiny that will be his.
He will discover exotic and fascinating lands, among them Indochina. Then he will marry, settling with his family in the fortified village of Marciac in Gascony.
Before long, however, he returns to Indochina, to its vast bush and mysterious jungle, and to hazardous searches for opium smugglers along riverbanks. There he will fall under the charm of young Mi Hit and will savor the magical atmosphere of her family house on stilts with bamboo lattices. Amid palm trees and lychee trees, Mi Hit will give birth to their daughter, Mikaï.
One day, Jean-Gustave brings Mikaï back with him to France: a distressing event for his family in Marciac.