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How to write about the Great War? The first technological conflict of the XXth Century, the doorway, also, to half a century of barbarity without preceden.Echenoz takes on a new literary challenge andrises toit masterfully. The confident pen of the author advances alongside the soldiers on their long marches through the fields of war, accompanying four young men of theVende: Anthime and his friends, caughtin the middle of an indiscernible mass of meat and metal, of projectiles and death. But it also speaks about the life that goes on, far from the trenches, of the life lived by characters like Blanche and her family. And this fascinating story is toldwith the subtle irony that characterizes this authors writing.