“Spain In Our Hearts” by Adam Hochschild
The Spanish Civil war, from July 17, 1936 to April 1, 1939, cost some half a million Spanish lives; another half …
Tag Archives: War
Not So Quiet On the Western Front, A Woman Looks at WW I
Helen Zenna Smith, who wrote one of the most powerful witnesses to war I’ve ever read, was the pseudonym of …
“The Human Body” by Paolo Giordano, Italian Soldiers in Afghanistan
Paolo Giordano’s The Human Body comes with encomiums such as ” a stunning exploration of war,” “a great novel of …
The Courage Not to Go to War
“I was a coward. I went to the war.” is one of the most true and courageous lines in Tim …
Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War….
The civil war in Spain, 1936-1939, was the dark warning to the world of the war to follow, in almost every …
William Faulkner and WW I: A Fable
Since I’ve been sparse in posting these last weeks, for various (all good) reasons, I thought I’d re-post this look …
Empire Then, Empire Now
Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’ve been re-reading this justly famous novel …
The Wound: Algeria then, Afghanistan now…
The Wound /Des Hommes, is an absolutely remarkable novel from Laurent Mauvignier, his seventh [now up to eleven] in the …
1914: Slender Novel, Big War
Although Jean Echenoz is both widely read and a winner of multiple literary prizes in France you’d have to …
The Great Swindle: Opportunities in France, 1919
Pierre Lemaitre has won a substantial following both in his native France and abroad for writing crime fiction. His Commandant Camille …
Zinky Boys: Russian Dead in Foreign Lands
Zinky Boys, Svetlana Alexievich‘s third book, and the third about war, reveals in it’s flip, bitter title, the pervading feeling …
WW I In The Italian Alps: Torneranno i Prati by Ermanno Olmi
Ermanno Olmi is best known in the United States for his 1978 movie, The Tree of Wooden Clogs, even though …