Léon Werth was a French writer and art critic who examined French society with precision and a critical eye. His work delved into the era of World War I, colonization, and French 'collaboration' during World War II. He was a close friend and confidant of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
This powerfully expressed anti-war novel allows us to see World War One through the eyes of Werth's alter ego, private Clavel. His reports and comments on his participation in this disorienting event portray war as an absurd and discontinuous experience.
This diary is one of the most precious-and readable-pieces of testimony about life in Vichy France under Nazi occupation. Werth was a Jewish writer who left Paris in June 1940 and hid out in a small village. We see how the Occupation affected life in the countryside and finally, the Paris insurrection of August 1944.