Soldat inconnu vivant. English The living unknown soldier : a story of grief and the Great War / by Jean-Yves Le Naour ; translated by Penny Allen.

Collection type Library
Author Le Naour, Jean-Yves.;
Call Number 940.41244092 L563l
Document type Monograph
Year 2004.
Pagination 233 p. : [8] p. of plates ; 22 cm.
Publisher Metropolitan Books,
Note Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-233) and index. "In February 1918, a derelict soldier was discovered wandering the railway station in Lyon, France. With no memory of his name or his past, no identifying possessions, marks, or documents, the soldier - given the name Anthelme Mangin - was sent to an asylum for the insane. When, after the Great War ended, the authorities placed the soldier's image in advertisements to locate his family, hundreds of "relatives" claimed him - as their father or son, husband or brother who had failed to return from the front .". "Marshaling a vast array of original material, from letters and newspaper articles to accounts of battlefield deaths, hospital reports, and police files, French historian Jean-Yves Le Naour meticulously re-creates the long-forgotten story of the single soldier who came to stand for a lost generation. With humane sympathy and the skill of a novelist, he recounts the twenty-year court battles waged by the families competing to take the amnesiac soldier home. In the process, he portrays not just the fate of one individual but the rank and file's experience in the trenches, as well as an entire nation's inconsolable grief at the loss of more than one million of its men." "This history depicts the pain and turmoil of a society that, without bodies to bury, is caught between holding on and letting go."--BOOK JACKET.
Place made New York

Shelf Items

Barcode Call Suffix Volume Part Year Location Status
AWM063289 940.41244092 L563l Stacks On Shelf