Used book – Le Val des Chouées, Philippe-Alexis Dejean

April 1919. The "Great War" ended five months ago. Émile, a severely wounded French soldier, leaves the hospital. His first duty: to visit Cornelia, the widow of Arnaud, a young officer killed while coming to his aid. What a shock when Émile finds himself in Cornelia's presence! Everything separates them: he, a peasant from Cantal; she, an aristocrat of foreign origin living alone with an old servant in her castle, at the bottom of a remote valley in Lorraine: the "Val des Chouées". Despite his loyalty to Arnaud's memory, will Émile resist her charm? He will have to find the key to the mystery hidden within the castle walls, in this seemingly peaceful "Val des Chouées".