Grey Souls

Wonderful writing! I loved the turn of phrase and the poetic prose, translated into English from French. I'll certainly seek out more of Philippe Claudel's work.

"Grey Souls" (which is not available in a Kindle edition) was republished some two years later as "By a Slow River" . This newer version is sold in hard copy at a fraction of the price of "Grey Souls" and is also available in a Kindle edition. The two translations are of VERY different styles. The "By a Slow River" version, while beautifully written unfortunately lapses too often into American vernacular which strikes a jarring note. I sugest the "By a Slow River" version which receives very favorable ratings on AmazonThe locale (as in Claudel's "Brodeck" and his screenplay for "I Loved You a Long Time") is Alsace and this time the time is WW1. I bought this book because I was blown away by "Brodeck". I m not sure which is the better work - so read both

The book is very well written, but It never really caught my whole attention and interest. It's a fine book.

Stunningly moving and expertly-plotted, deep novel about major issues: war, death, crime & punishment, class privilege and love, even beyond the grave. Sudden, heartbreaking loss has different impacts on different bereaved persons: many pick themselves up after a while, a few end their lives, or experience a life-long feeling of falling, every day again, wondering what the point is of going on living and working. One of them is the narrator of this litany of dramatic events, which occurred in Northern France within hearing distance of WW I’s four years of carnage and cannon fire and whose impact lasts for decades. Who he is? Sorry, he will shed some more light on himself around p. 100. Meanwhile, please read what he has to say and how he says it.Only Saints and Angels have white souls, only the Devil’s is pitch black. Mortal humans’ souls are grey, some light, many dark. Early on, readers will become acquainted with a fantastically-drawn personage, who may have a darker soul than most and whom the Narrator comes gradually to recognise as, perhaps, a fellow mourner in perpetuity. He is the prefecture’s public prosecutor.Am deeply impressed by this book. Find it one of the very best novels in years. It is a storyteller’s triumph, a detective writer’s dream, a small local history based on oral sources. Philippe Claudel has awesome descriptive powers and is brilliant at characterizing lots of persons in an unforgettable way. This was my fourth Claudel and am well into a fifth. The theme of mourning and remorse returns in his “Meuse l’Oubli”, the big factory in this book--which helped many local men escape being drafted--returns in another guise in his futuristic novel “The Investigation”. This novel is totally brilliant and highly recommended.

Slowly and solemnly, Philippe Claudel takes what at first glance appears to be an old fashioned police procedural and turns it into a deeply moving account of the damaged country and psyche which the citizens of France experience during WWI. The frontline is too close physically and psychologically to allow life to carry on as normal in the small industry town where “Grey Souls” is set. Too many people are tortured or suffer loss for there ever to be real healing and the innocent suffer the most.