Written by one of the finest historians of France, this extraordinary history of French life lived under occupation during the First and Second World Wars is an intimate, vivid reflection on the peculiar mixture of compromise and treachery, collaboration and resistance that distinguishes defeat. A wonderful novel for understanding human nature... Cobb has a deep understanding of how daily life must continue despite tragedies and sensitivity to the time period, along with a flair for the telling term, "Economist." New York Review of Books: "Richard Cobb is a visionary and a prophet of the past." His France, which was urban, provincial, loud, unpuritanical, and celebratory, contrasted with and was based on another France, which was bureaucratic, official, suburban, and secure. J. B. Barnes.