Author of a dozen works, fables and dark, psychological novels, Alain Monnier aims to cast a critical eye on our modern world. D’autres terres que les nôtres is the saga of an Italian family, which like so many others, for economic and political reasons, is forced to immigrate to the southwest of France.

Following the violence of a family trauma that culminates in an endless train journey, this peasant family chooses the rigors of the Gers to escape the poverty of the Veneto. The book deals with the difficulties encountered by Italian immigrants in the 1920s and examines the prevailing mood back in Italy as seen through the eyes of a young nobleman seduced by fascism. We become attached to the different characters, the widow, the young son, the friend Tommaso, characters with multiple points of view, and shared concerns, difficulties in renouncing their culture and apprehensions in the face of new ideas. World War II did not help matters and saw prejudices resurface and tensions exacerbated.

In his latest novel, despite the adversity of events, Alain Monnier summons with nuance and conviction, recent history, the place of the family in a peasant environment and the uncertain dynamics of integration in a foreign land.