The mangoes will remain green

Odélise was born in 1965 on the island of Réunion. She lives on the family farm in Grand Bassin with her parents and six brothers and sisters and has just finished fifth grade. The family is poor and Odélise’s destiny seems all mapped out: help on the farm and then marry a boy from the village.
But the French government had other ideas. Shortly before the mango season, which she loves so much, Odélise is literally deported, along with a hundred other children, and sent to mainland France, to the Creuse department. Her foster family, the Tarteixes, rename her Odile, because “it sounds better around here.”
To combat her grief, isolation, and the cold weather and food so different from that of her island, Odélise invents an alter ego, Zeïla, who will never leave her side.
When, as a teenager, the young girl’s body changed, the family’s attitude hardened and her brother-in-law Tarteix, who had been indifferent until then, began to harass and rape her. Odélise withdraws into herself and Zeïla begins to take over her mind. From then on, it is Zeïla who speaks through her mouth and acts on her behalf, throwing herself at Tarteix and lacerating his face. It is time for Odélise to escape and free herself from this family and the madness that is brewing inside her.