Hidden Faces

Book excerpt: "Through a small number of characters who with their private passions are caught up in the maelstrom of history the author evokes a decadent European society as it sinks into vice, sterility and irresponsibility and becomes engulfed in the catastrophe of war. From the time of the February riots in the Paris, the novel takes the reader through the turmoil of French political and social life before the Munich crisis, through the tragedy and heroism of the French people under the defeat and the occupation and beyond, into the peace that follows. Love is the central theme, and it is played with several variations, one or two of which are the strangest to be found in literature since the writings of the Marquis de Sade. War, politics, friendship, loyalty, love of the land, heroism are among the subsidiary themes which the author develops in his own original way. There are passages of unforgettable visualization--the bombing of Malta, the execution of the notary, Pierre Girardin, by the Germans, conspiracies in North Africa, the Prince of Orminy's suicide, the death of Adolph Hitler, Nostradamus' prophecy of victory and the end of the war. Filled with the raciness, the iconoclasm, the shocking unconventionally which this artist's strange genius seems always to manifest itself, it is rigorously constructed, and the dramatic interest is maintained at a high pitch."--Book jacket.