Told in a French Garden

In the summer of 1914, a circle of American friends gathers in a beautiful French country house, seeking escape from their ordinary lives. Then Austria declares war on Serbia, and within weeks the continent descends into chaos. As the German army advances through Belgium and the shadow of conflict creeps closer to their rural retreat, the Americans face an impossible choice: flee to safety or remain in the path of history. They choose to stay, drawn together by curiosity, loyalty, and an unshakeable sense that they must witness what is about to unfold. What follows is both intimate and epic. Each evening, the company takes turns telling stories, a tradition that becomes their anchor against uncertainty. These tales, shared around candlelight as troop trains rumble past carrying soldiers to the front, blur the line between fiction and confession. The storytelling becomes a way of processing the unimaginable, a collective act of courage and denial. Written in the war's immediate aftermath, this novel stands as a remarkable artifact of that first terrible summer. Aldrich captures the liminal moment when the old world collapsed and the new one took shape, writing with the urgency of someone who knows everything is about to change.