The Marne: A Tale of the War

Every summer, Troy Belknap has escaped to France with his wealthy American family, falling in love with a country that feels more like home than anywhere his family actually lives. His French tutor, M. Gantier, has taught him the language, the literature, the soul of a nation. Then the summer of 1914 arrives, and this time the Germans invade. Gantier leaves for the army. The tourists flee. And Troy, just old enough to understand what's happening but too young to do anything about it, watches the world he loves descend into chaos. Wharton, who witnessed the war's opening weeks firsthand, wrote this novel hot on the heels of history, capturing something most war fiction misses: the particular grief of a boy who loses his innocence not in battle but in helpless observation. It's a slim, piercing portrait of how the First World War stole a generation's future, told through one boy's desperate wish to matter in a conflict that reduces everyone to spectators.