The Fires of Autumn

With elegant simplicity and unswerving honesty, Irene Nemirovsky chronicles the brutalizing effects of war, on three ordinary Parisian families whose lives intertwine, spanning the years between 1912 and 1941. What starts out as a glorious campaign, in 1914, full of optimistic declarations of France's greatness, soon turns to shame and cynicism as the conflict drags on. Parisians, suffering from cold and hunger, seem unable or unwilling to comprehend the horrors of the trenches. 

Others seeing the main chance, prospers as black market racketeers.  Bernard, who had enlisted with high hopes, returns from the Western Front,  hardened and disillusioned, whose one aim, as he faces the interwar years, is to make money in whatever way possible and to indulge his senses.  For his childhood friend, Therese, widowed at 22, the pursuit of happiness, now seems an impossible dream.