Jean Raspail's The Camp of the Saints, first published in 1973, remains one of the most suppressed books of the 20th century. This dystopian novel about mass migration from the third world continues to provoke controversy, as it tackles a topic still considered taboo. While works like The Handmaid's Tale and Nineteen Eighty-Four are frequently featured in banned book campaigns and school curricula, English translations of Raspail's magnum opus have been notoriously difficult to find, with used hard copies selling for hundreds of dollars until recently.
In 2025, Vauban Books, an independent publisher, released a new and improved translation of The Camp of the Saints. Paperbacks were priced at around $25 US, hardcovers at $40, and they were available on Amazon. However, on April 20, the retailer mysteriously removed physical copies from its American and Canadian storefronts, citing a violation of its 'offensive content' policy, though the audiobook remained purchasable. Vauban Books protested, and the print copies were restored a day later, with Amazon attributing the removal to an error.
The controversy has had an ironic effect: since the removal, Vauban's edition has climbed Amazon's bestseller list, reaching number 10 in Canada by Wednesday lunchtime. Copies have since sold out, and the publisher is printing more. Despite this, the book remains underdiscussed and unavailable in many venues.
Libraries and booksellers often refuse to stock it; banned book campaigns ignore it; and prominent figures like Margaret Atwood, who fights against book bans, have not mentioned it. Nor have major Canadian outlets like The Globe and Mail or Alberta's writers' guild, which defended the illustrated novel Gender Queer when it was restricted from school libraries. The Camp of the Saints is not available in English print at Indigo, nor in the catalogues of many public or university libraries, though some libraries hold commentaries that reference the novel, such as 'White Pride and the Next Holocaust: The Camp of the Saints' and 'In the Camp of the Saints: Right-Wing Populism in Twenty-First-Century France.'
It seems many of the book's harshest critics have not actually read it. Having read it, I can confirm it is not a neo-Holocaust instruction manual. While it contains sexual content that makes it unsuitable for children, it is no more deserving of suppression than other 20th-century dystopian fiction. The introduction to the 2025 edition notes that Raspail was motivated by empathy, inspired by his travels in South America, where he saw native culture overwhelmed by colonization. He wondered how Europe would fare if flooded with foreigners, leading him to write this provocative novel.
