Les lois du ciel
Grégoire Courtois's Les lois du ciel (2016) follows a kindergarten class from Claincy on a multi-day trip into the Morvan forest — around a dozen five- and six-year-old children and three adult supervisors. From the first afternoon, something is off, and as the adults' grip on the trip disintegrates, the children are left alone to fend for themselves. Written in short, propulsive chapters, it's a tragicomic and deeply unsettling novel about innocence, cruelty, and what surfaces when the rules of civilization fall away — often compared to Lord of the Flies.
One of the youngest children on the trip, whose unsettling behavior hints at something darker beneath a neglected exterior.
Yes. Grégoire Courtois's novel was translated from French by Rhonda Mullins and published in English as "The Laws of the Skies" by Coach House Books in 2019.
The novel is set in the Morvan forest in France, where a kindergarten class from the town of Claincy travels for a multi-day school trip that goes badly wrong.