Remembering the 1918 Armistice - some French reading

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, Remembrance ceremonies to honour the millions of casualties and deaths caused by the 'Great War' take place this Sunday all over France and the UK. Here is a short reading list, including some books translated into English and some not, for the occasion.

First, for the books translated into English! 14, a novel by Jean Echenoz published in 2012 (Editions de Minuit), tells the story of five men who went to war, depicting the daily lives and thoughts of the soldiers. 1914, the English translation by Linda Coverdale (The New Press), was published in 2013. The translation was listed for both the 2016 International DUBLIN Literary Award, and the Three Percent's 2015 Best Translated Book Award for Fiction.

Pierre Lemaitre's Goncourt winning novel, Au revoir là-haut (Albin Michel), was published in 2013 and translated by Frank Wynne in 2016 with the English title The Great Swindle (MacLehose Press). The story is set after the Armistice of 2018: 'Back in civilian life, Albert and Édouard struggle to adjust to a society whose reverence for its dead cannot quite match its resentment for those who survived. But the two soldiers conspire to enact an audacious form of revenge against the country that abandoned them to penury and despair, with a scheme to swindle the whole of France on an epic scale.'

Another literary work produced around the thematics of the Great War is the collection of graphic novels by Jacques Tardi. The Great War is present throughout his whole work, so much that some refer to him as the graphic novel specialist of that period; in 2014, the Angouleme Festival of graphic novels even dedicated an exhibition about Tardi's work and its link to the War. For instance, his depiction of the First World War is present in C'était la guerre des tranchées (Casterman), which is a story about the soldiers during the war that was inspired by Tardi's grandfather. It was translated in English as It was the war of the trenches was published by Fantagraphics in 2010. It won several prizes such as the Eisner Comic Industry Awards for best reality-based work and best U.S. edition of international material.

Now for a few recent ones. Alexandre Duyck, a French journalist, published his first novel Augustin (JC Lattès) last month. It relates the life of Augustin Trébuchon, the last French soldier who died during the War, as he was shot on the 11th of November, 1918, day of the Armistice. Duyck, proceeding as a reporter, investigated the life of this man through the civil and military archives for several months in order to build a realistic and accurate portrait of the soldier.

The collective book Armistice, published by Gallimard and edited by Jean-Marie Laclavetine, gathers texts by thirty authors who tell their own vision of the war, and of their understanding of peace. From imaginary reconstructions of the historical events to intimate family memories, this book questions our own intimate relationship to the war, and asks to reflect on the meaning of the armistice today. The book also offers a multi-artistic vision of the war, as it is illustrated by various reproductions of engravings by famous painters of the period (Otto Dix, Fernand Léger...)

As far as literary commemorations are concerned, French president Emmanuel Macron announced on the 6th of November that Maurice Genevoix would be inhumated in the Panthéon. Simultaneously to his inhumation, there will be the first collective Pantheonisation in French history: that of all people who died between 1914 and 1918, fighting for France. Genevoix fought as a soldier during the First World War. He wrote several books and poems about it, including Ceux de 14, a collection of texts about his experience as a soldier, in 1949.

Finally, radio programmes join the literary and political spheres to commemorate the Great War: the BBC launched an 'Armistice Day Poem' programme of ten episodes. Click here to hear the podcasts. The French radio France Culture also dedicated parts of its programme to the First World War in the programme 'La Grande Table'. A dialog between the historian Bruno Cabanes and the novelist David Diop, who wrote Frères d'âme (shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, telling about the Senegalese infrantrymen). You can listen to the podcast here.