Book Description

Summer 1939: Alexandre lives peacefully in Brittany, France, with his wife and newborn child. Suddenly, war is declared. He is enlisted on the Eastern Front line with his engineer regiment. His fascinating odyssey takes him to Flanders, Belgium, and Dunkirk where he misses the last boat for England. Taken prisoner, he walks to Holland where he is then transported to two prison camps in Pomerania. From the stalags to the village of Schivelbein, where he works in a kommando for five interminable years of confinement, Alexandre goes through many tragic, but sometimes also comical, adventures where he encounters a plethora of endearing characters – Jean, the erudite joker; Fanch, the bon vivant; Théo, the simpleton horse broker; Léon, the unfortunate teacher; Violette, the spinster organist; Émile, the tenor; André, the poet miller; Frida, the Teutonic bewitcher and her lover Janusz, the lame hunchback; Gus, the ingenious and facetious escapee; Amadeusz, the Francophile haulier; Gérard, the fox; Dmitri, the Russian soldier and Latin scholar; Marie, the madly in love; and many more …. Eventually, the Red Army liberates Alexandre, who then experiences new dramatic adventures before his return, after six years of absence, to his barely-known little boy and his wife who are impatiently waiting for him. Inspired by true events, Alexandre’s story is enthralling, written with a compelling honesty to the brutality he experienced. The narrative is well-paced, heart-breaking twists and turns combine a deep emotional effect with a compulsion that drags the reader to the edge of their seat beyond the final dramatic moments. The authorial voice is transfixing, evoking the War and its lasting impact to great effect. Supported by a detailed, nuanced, and complex cast, a layered narrative and an immersive evocation of the era, ‘SIX YEARS OF ABSENCE - An endless confinement’ is undoubtedly a crafted novel worthy of attention.