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The Verdun Affair

Review

The Verdun Affair

This is the most retro romance I’ve read in a long time. If our culture was still in the period when going to the movies meant seeing a day’s array of offerings, from documentary news programming to high-stakes wartime romantic dramas, THE VERDUN AFFAIR would be the blockbuster that everyone waded through the low tide of the cartoons and newsreels to see. Nick Dybek’s second novel offers up the layers of story and love playing against the backdrop of the Great War, World War I, that grow into a complex, twisted history that shapes the lives of two young men and one beautiful widow throughout 1950s Los Angeles.

Verdun is the location of one of the bloodiest battles of World War I. That legacy of violence and fear unleashes its effects on the lives of three individuals who become intertwined forever. A former ambulance driver named Tom is gathering bones from the battlefield in 1921, and Sarah is a widow who thinks her husband is still alive and follows his military trail in order to discover what made him leave his division without notice. This being a romantic story, the two of them find each other in these impossible circumstances and begin an affair.

"This is the most retro romance I’ve read in a long time.... THE VERDUN AFFAIR is a smart and elegant look at a difficult time and difficult legacies. Be sure to leave your cell phone aside as you become engrossed in this enthralling tale."

Torn apart by the aftermath of the war, Tom and Sarah eventually reunite at a hospital in Italy, joined together by an amnesiac soldier patient. There a third party surfaces --- an Austrian journalist named Paul who also wants to know what is up with the patient. All three of these characters have their own trauma to deal with and secrets they take with them from their time dealing with the war.

“Loneliness is the perfect subtext for a lullaby,” Tom says after an interesting night in Santa Monica in 1950. A beautiful life is filled with sadness. Since Tom is now a screenwriter who leads a beautiful life, a surprise reconnection with Paul brings him face to face with the unwelcome mysteries of their lives during the war in Europe. The patient with whom they were obsessed and how he ended up an amnesiac in that Italian hospital long ago comes back into play. Neither has been able to forget him for how his situation affected their lives every day since then. Mistaken identities, love, betrayal, coming-of-age angst and a bittersweet romance become enmeshed in the story of how these two men come to wrestle with and try to regain their footing in a world forever entangled and colored by its intensities.

World War I is the perfect backdrop for this ageless romance, in which love is intertwined with hate and truth is confused with the imaginings of those suffering from the woes of battle. It’s a visceral PTSD trip where every reader can understand what both of these men are suffering and how the loss of love and the loss of life leave imprints on humanity that no amount of capitalistic success can override. THE VERDUN AFFAIR is a smart and elegant look at a difficult time and difficult legacies. Be sure to leave your cell phone aside as you become engrossed in this enthralling tale.

Reviewed by Jana Siciliano on June 15, 2018

The Verdun Affair
by Nick Dybek

  • Publication Date: August 13, 2019
  • Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction
  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Scribner
  • ISBN-10: 1501191772
  • ISBN-13: 9781501191770