This is a rather different type of WWII historical novel. As the title says, the book focuses on a week-end at Zuycoote, close to Dunkirk, right after the Allies defeat.
And we follow four French soldiers who became friends.
Each of the four is well described and you can really know their distinct personalities.
"Ils étaient heureux d'être ensemble, tous les quatre, sous le soleil."
There's a lot of humor, especially at the beginning, which made me fear for the worst: indeed, my experience is that an author tends to insert a lot of humor in a really tough book, to make it a bit more bearable.
The dialogues sound very true, the type of conversation and vocabulary that soldiers would use.
The main themes are the importance of friendship and the stupidity and absurdity of war.
" Pour moi, la guerre est absurde. Et pas telle ou telle guerre. Toutes les guerres. Dans l'absolu. Sans exception. Sans régime de faveur. Autrement dit, il n'y a pas de guerre juste, ou de guerre sacrée, ou de guerre pour la bonne cause. Une guerre, par définition, c'est absurde."
The author did a remarkable job at highlighting it that in a rather short novel (244 pages).
And there are great passages on fear and heroism.
A movie (Dunkirk) was made on this book, with the famous Jean-Paul Belmondo, but knowing the end of the book, I'm definitely staying away.
As you already know, this is not a spoiler to say that all does not end well.