The Fledgling

A young American arrives in France during the Great War seeking something he can't quite name, and enlists in the French army to find it. What follows is a portrait of transformation: the grinding tedium of life at the front, the dark humor soldiers use to survive, and the deadly serious pursuit of becoming a pilot. The narrator's journey from ambulance driver to aspiring aviator is both a coming-of-age story and a window into a lost era, when flight was still miraculous and brutally dangerous. Nordhoff captures something true about male friendship under extreme conditions. His soldiers are crude, funny, brave, and terrified in equal measure. The New Year's Eve scene with fellow soldiers reveals the absurdity and tenderness of men who know they might not see spring. This is not a glorification of war but an honest accounting of what it does to young men, and what they do to survive it.