War portrayed in books

For the last week, I have been pleasantly stuck with a book about the First World War in France. This is actually one of few books I saw as a movie first. It came about because the leading star in the movie was Audrey Tautou. Since I saw her in Amelie de Montmartre I fell in love with her. She is such a fantastic actress and her work with the director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is amazing. Therefore I went on a hunt to find more films starring her. This is when I ran into this book/film called A very long engagement by Sébastien Japrisot.
The story is a regular boy meets girl love story, but without the regular clichés you often find in these types of books. The loving couple (Mathilde and Manech) meets years before the Great War even starts but as many other couples, the war is the event, which separates them. When Mathilde in 1917 receives a message that Manech was killed in action, she first refuses to believe it, later she learns to accept it. But, the mysteries around his death she cannot believe, instead she starts her own investigations to find out the truth…
This is how much I will tell you, now it is up to you to find out what happens in the end. Let me know what you think. Then see the movie. It is worth spending a summer night inside to re-live the story all over again with Audrey Tautou.

Another book about a lost soul in the First World War, this one non-fiction, is Living unknown soldier by Jean-Yves Le Naour, which I read earlier this year. It is about an unknown solider coming back from the war disoriented and not able to say who he is and where he is from. This starts a search for his real identity and his family as well as a conflict of its own of desperate wives, mothers and brothers who want their missing soldier back. The truth about this unknown solider is never found and the families never see the end of their missing soldier. A strong emotional book that gives you some insights of the terrors of war, a soldier who survived the war, but at the same time never really left it.

These books are two of many written about the First World War, a war to end all wars. I am sure there are many more out there, on my list is one about the battle of Verdun by Jules Romains if you have any favourites, let me know.
Josefine

My recommendations: The Alphabet house by Jussi Adler-Olsen, a book about two English pilots during World War II.