Your Death Would Be Mine

One of the very best books in English about France during this time, Hanna mines a treasure trove of letters between a married peasant couple from southwest France to tell an intimate history of the war, of its effects on families, women, villages, men, and the countryside. War stories take place on battlefields, of course, but also in homes and in hearts. Anyone wanting to understand the experience of the Great War at the front, on the home front, and everywhere in between, should start here.

Soldiers and loved ones wrote tens of millions of letters during the war, as they supported one another and tried to close the gap of distance and time. These literary sources provide a glimpse into the war in the trenches and that at home, and one of my favourite books is Hanna’s Your Death Would be Mine. Based on a rich collection of letters between a French soldier and his wife, the reader peers into the secret war shared between those in uniforms and those who waited for them at home.