Jean-Marie Gustave Le clézio is a French novelist and he was awarded theNobel Prize in literature in 2008. He published thirty-six books including short stories, novels, essays …etc.
Poisson d'or (meaning Gold fish in English) is a novel of J.M.G. Le clézio, it is the story of a young woman's search for identity. Laïla “le poisson d'or" is a young African girl. She is born in a village in Morocco and she is sold to Lalla Asma. After Lalla's death, she spends her adolescence as an illegal immigrant. Her life has many adventures. She decides to go back home and return to her native village, which she has never known.
This article examines the quest for identity of the protagonist. This novel is a short journey in human civilizations. Laïla searches for her own identity in Morocco, in Nice, in Paris and in the United-States, Boston, Chicago, California.
In this novel, J.M.G. Le clézio writes about the problem of the illegal immigrants. He studies many of his recurrent themes: displacement and alienation, freedom and independence, loneliness and yearning.