The Wound by Laurent Mauvignier

Mauvignier shows readers how the Algerian War, always present yet always repressed, has sickened the emotional and moral life of everyone it touched—and France itself, perhaps. The epigraph, like the novel, suggests that wounded men may even become the wound itself.

The Wound is a gripping, emotionally charged story about French troops fighting in Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence. We begin in the present, where village alcoholic "Woodsmoke" causes a commotion, but then we jump back in time to his time in Algeria, to the doubt, dread, and anguish he felt. The book depicts crimes done by all sides – it depicts the horrors of war, the abandonment of its veterans, and the humiliation and anguish they endure as a result of their involvement in its combat. It's a narrative about occupation and failing to defend those you promised to protect, and it's terribly applicable now.

Translated by Nicole Ball and David Ball

Link to read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21944991-the-wound