During the winter of 1917, in a village in northern France, close to raging battles, a
young girl is found dead,
killed on
the edge of a small stream. Some years later the police offcer who investigated the case, relates what followed. Who
killed Belle? A passing looter? The deserting Breton soldier? Would not class solidarity,be spared; in the person the Prosecutor Destinat a pitiless cold character? How can one explain the suicide of
young teacher Lysia, so full of life? Arising from a Simenon enigma, Philip Claudel built a powerful novel, with impressive dramatic progression, seizing the tableau of provincial France, plunged into the nightmare of war. He analyzed, with a clarity and a psychological smoothness without fault the turbulent ratios of the good and evil contained within each of us, rendering our spirits as ‘Grey Souls’. Romance was adapted to the cinema. ‘The Grey Souls’ was among the finalists for Goncourt and Femina finally rewarded with the Renaudot prize 2003.