Publisher's Synopsis
A tender love story against the devastating background of war
France, June 1944. In the distressing background of World War II, Kevin Baker, an American infantryman, participates in the Allied landing in Normandy. There he meets Myriam Emerald, a militant French resistance fighter. A romance develops between the two, but their relationship is threatened by circumstances that not only hinder this relationship but also jeopardize their chances of survival. Arriving in the small town of Carentan, a key crossroads for the Americans, Kevin learns that a Nazi officer, Azius Keller, preceded by his reputation as a cruel man and torturer, has a personal vengeance in store that is difficult to thwart...Freedom versus oppression, feeling versus brutality, love and friendship versus hatred and savagery. These are the contrasting visions of reality in a succession of bloody wartime clashes, unexpected raids and attacks, and harassment of defenseless civilians.
However, there are also moments of delicate intimacy, of manly empathy between individuals exposed to the cruel and alienating effects of war, of human understanding that transcends the rigid hierarchies dictated by military discipline.
The pressing pace imparted to the unfolding of the narrated events generates a growing state of suspense, thanks to a particular plot structure, articulated in thematic variations marked on different temporal planes (individual drama and collective tragedy, direct experience and memory flash backs, frequent variations in the point of view), which produce in the reader effects of rapid identification.A novel that involves deeply and makes one think
