In the last battles of the Great War, two young hairy unlikely brothers in arms, flee putting each other. A demobilization and difficult return to civilian life, they are only rebus for a company seeking to turn its back dark years.
The struggle for survival continues, among secrets, regrets, wounds of body and soul. Whatever the cost, desire for revenge on men and life is the strongest and will be the breeding ground of a masterful and cynical scam.
From the first pages, reading is done with a hollow in the stomach, because how scary is the fate of those young men in the terrible massacre of 14/18!
Din of weapons, pestilential odors, broken faces of atrocious injuries, self-hate, indifference of officers and misery of trouffion, the war is there in his infernal machine carnage. In rehabilitation so hard, it's disenchantment and distress of a generation sacrificed "cannon fodder", exploited by reasons of state, his cronies and their excesses.
Indictment in the administration, the army, opportunistic turpitude of the post-war society, the frenetic selling death and commemoration, against the indifference of the nation for the survivors.
It is also a reflection on patriotism, courage, cowardice, loyalty.
Pierre Lemaitre by master storyteller makes us change time, with a living writing and senior portraits in color, as close to the real. It shakes, vibrates, shakes and empathize. It reads like a soldier book with colorful and mocking language of this new century. The author has a way with words and nicely plays with words.
It is at once infinitely sad and a chilling cruelty but also an ironic chronicle characters and situations sketched with humor.
After this book, I shall not see war memorials and military cemeteries in the same way ...
