Book of the Month: February 2021

01.02.2021

Svenja Schürmann recommends The Penguin Book of First World War Stories.

“If you are interested in reading about the First World War, The Penguin Book of First World War Stories and its companion piece The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry are a good place to start. The short story collection edited by Barbara Korte is divided into four sections – Front, Spies and Intelligence, At Home and In Retrospect – with each story focusing on a different aspect of the war or its aftermath. The collection features stories by a diverse set of authors, among them Arthur Conan Doyle, Katherine Mansfield, Winifred Holtby and Muriel Spark. My favourite story from the collection is probably “Evermore” by Julian Barnes, the moving tale of Miss Moss whose whole life is defined by her brother’s death in 1917. Even fifty years after the war she visits her brother’s grave and the war memorials and cemeteries in France every year. While the story focuses on the grief of one person, the reader is left with larger questions: Is there a responsibility to remember the war and the people who died in it and if so, how do we remember them? I think these questions are still relevant today.”