Overview

In November 1918, in a railway carriage in a forest near Paris, six men meet to negotiate an end to the terrible slaughter of the First World War. Threatened by famine and anarchy at home, the Germans struggle to mitigate the punishing terms offered by the Allies. But both sides are torn by battle exhaustion and a confusion that far exceed their national differences. In this riveting combination of history, speculation and rumour, Thomas Keneally recreates the personalities, ideals, prejudices, arguments and desperate measures that resulted in the armistice which would shape the future of Europe. Four of Thomas Keneally's novels have been shortlisted for the Booker prize and SCHINDLER'S ARK (filmed by Steven Spielberg as Schindler's List) has sold more copies than any other Booker Prize-winner. He is also the author of several works of non-fiction, including THE PLACE WHERE SOULS ARE BORN, about the American Southwest.

Full Product Details

9780340431047

Table of Contents

Reviews

Extremely gripping, as well as important historical fiction -- New Statesman As fiction it is absorbing and as history it achieves the kind of significance earned only by sympathy acting on deep knowledge...Keneally's book belongs...with those like Solzhenitsyn's AUGUST 1914, books that delineate the past in sympathetic depth and so urge the reader to enter it -- New York Times Book Review I was intrigued, excited and sure that the vivid snapshots of private-versus-public emotion would coalesce into a moving, meaningful image -- The Sunday Times

Extremely gripping, as well as important historical fiction New Statesman As fiction it is absorbing and as history it achieves the kind of significance earned only by sympathy acting on deep knowledge...Keneally's book belongs...with those like Solzhenitsyn's AUGUST 1914, books that delineate the past in sympathetic depth and so urge the reader to enter it New York Times Book Review I was intrigued, excited and sure that the vivid snapshots of private-versus-public emotion would coalesce into a moving, meaningful image The Sunday Times

As in Keneally's portrait of Joan of Arc, Blood Red, Sister Rose (1974), this treatment of a historical event - the Armistice negotiations which ended World War I - explores the roots of personal and political power. The railroad car in the forest of Compiegne, where the meetings between the allies and a hastily assembled group of Germans took place, was appropriately shunted to a siding - away from the thousands who died and the millions who would live by what was decided there. The delegates bring their playthings into the crowded car: Marshall Foch his self-sanctified conviction that wars are won by moral force ; aristocrats of both sides their cherished hierarchies; and Matthias Erzberger, who Finds himself spokesman for the Germans, his conscience - a luxury for which he will never be forgiven at home. While the negotiators indulge in mystical exercises or bargain for ships and sealing wax, some dream (Foch, of mute soldiers hiding in the forest; Erzberger of pale soldiers. . . seeping waters ) while others grumble fearfully about socialism and tell tall tales. There was, for example, the story of a suicidal horse. . . What rider (now) would be safe? The air becomes stale and close and (in Keneally's one unfounded fantasy) a couple make love on the negotiating table: It was insufferable to think that in such a little space. . . eight men (could) weave a scab over that pit of corpses four years deep. With dramatic dialogue insets, this is a ruthless pursuit of those leaders who, as Foch remembers Joan of Arc, can make us swallow things whole. (Kirkus Reviews)

'Extremely gripping, as well as important historical fiction' -- New Statesman 'As fiction it is absorbing and as history it achieves the kind of significance earned only by sympathy acting on deep knowledge...Keneally's book belongs...with those like Solzhenitsyn's AUGUST 1914, books that delineate the past in sympathetic depth and so urge the reader to enter it' -- New York Times Book Review 'I was intrigued, excited and sure that the vivid snapshots of private-versus-public emotion would coalesce into a moving, meaningful image' -- The Sunday Times

Author Information

Thomas Keneally has been shortlisted for the Booker four times and won it with Schindler's Ark in 1982. His novels have been filmed (Schindler's List and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith) and dramatised (The Playmaker). He has also written several works of non-fiction, including The Place Where Souls are Born, about the American Southwest, and Homebush Boy, a memoir.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available