This article is the English version of Vikas Swarup, « L’année de son réveil », published in Politique étrangère (Vol. 91, No. 2, 2026) which celebrates the journal’s 90th anniversary.

When Ray Mehta opened his eyes, he saw light.

Not the hard light of a hospital. Winter light. Pale and level. It came through a wide pane of glass. Beyond it stood a mountain, solitary and white at the summit, its dark stone face rising clean into a sky of improbable blue.

He looked at it for some time before he tried to move.

Then he turned his head and took in the room.

It was spare in the way expensive things are spare. White walls. Rounded corners. A bed, a chair, a narrow table. No wires. No steel stands. No flowers. No clutter of medicine. The room had been designed to suggest serenity to someone who had paid for it in advance.

His mouth was dry. He swallowed. For a moment he did not know whether the procedure had succeeded or failed. Then a woman spoke.

– Good morning, Mr. Mehta.

She stood beside the bed. White uniform. Dark hair drawn back. A composed face, not young exactly, but unmarked by strain. She might have been beautiful. In that first moment he registered only her stillness.

– Where am I? he asked.

– In Zermatt.

He looked again at the mountain.

– The Matterhorn.

– Yes.

His voice came out rough.

– How long?

She did not answer at once. She was watching him with an attention that felt practiced and impersonal and almost kind.

– You entered cryogenic suspension on April 1, 2026, she said. Today is April 1, 2100.

He took that in without visible effort. Then he looked back at the mountain.

– So it worked, he said.

– Yes.

Read the rest of the article here.

Find the table of contents for the anniversary issue (No. 2/2026) of Politique étrangère here.

>>> More articles of Politique étrangère are available for reading on Cairn International. <<<