THE VERDUN AFFAIR by Nick Dybek

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

Tom lives a simple life gathering bones for the Verdun ossuary when he meets Sarah, who is searching for answers about her husband’s disappearance in battle. They connect, and the most passionate time of Tom’s life ensues, but his well-meaning lie about Sarah’s lost husband cascades to alter the course of their lives. Most of this read felt like sitting with Tom in over-stuffed lounge chairs listening to his first-person tale unfold in layers of time: present (1950s tinseltown); during the affair in the years following WW1; and in action set during childhood remembrances. Tom often punctuates his tale with dream-like musings—e.g., on the nature of death and grief, an imagined battle experience, how it feels to pretend, a vicious fascist’s satisfaction with his cruel deeds. A story that, at its heart, helps us understand the anguish of those the soldiers leave behind.