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The War

Marguerite Duras

1986183 pagesabout 3–4 hours
1986
first published
  • 1986Pantheon Books · 183 pages · ENGISBN 9780394552361
  • 1994New Press · 192 pages · ENGISBN 9781565842212
  • 1987Random House Value Publishing · ENGISBN 9780517660829
  • 1987Pantheon · ENGISBN 9780394750392

These extraordinary pages, written in 1944 but first published in 1985, form a totally new image of the heroine of *The Lover* and, through her, of Paris during the Nazi Occupation and the first months of Liberation. Married and living in Paris, part of a Resistance network headed by François Mitterrand, Duras is swept up in the turmoil of the period. She tells of nursing her starving husband back to life on his return from Belsen; interrogating a suspected collaborator; playing a game of cat and mouse with a Gestapo officer who is attracted to her; and more. The result is a book as moving as it is harrowing - perhaps Duras's finest yet.

Worth knowing

ViolenceFrequent

When and where

ThemesWar

Content notes

  • Warmoderateunreviewed

Quotesnone available

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