Wolfang Matz's brilliant literary history of a country torn between nation and Europe. France is a divided country. On one side is the republican, secular, urban left, born from the ideas of 1789 that changed all of Europe; on the other side is the national, Catholic, often anti-Semitic right, which seeks to isolate France from international modernity. There was a time when it was believed this division had been overcome: during World War I, all parties defended their country together. However, France became a defeated victor, and between the wars, internal struggles left the republic defenseless against totalitarian ideologies and military enemies. The defeat in 1940 seemed to seal this defenselessness. The ongoing crisis made French writers more politically engaged than ever before. In broad strokes as well as in ways that are almost unheard of in this country.