The Girl from Alsace: A Romance of the Great War, Originally Published Under the Title of Little Comrade

Stewart, an American surgeon, shares a farewell coffee with his German friend Bloem in Cologne as the drums of war begin to beat in July 1914. Bloem departs for military duty, resigned to the machine of German militarism. Then Stewart encounters a mysterious Frenchwoman from Alsace, a region torn between two nations, who begs for his help to escape the war's clutches. Written in 1915 while the Great War still raged, Burton Egbert Stevenson's novel captures something few historical romances can: the immediacy of watching the world shatter in real time. This is a story about love complicated by borders that no longer exist, friendship severed by flags, and a woman's identity as both her burden and her redemption. For readers who want historical fiction that feels lived rather than remembered.