My heart will remain ice-cold, Éric Cherrière

In the heart of the forest, there is a place where the oldest fir trees live, protected from the wind as well as from sun exposure, rain, and snow. Also protected from human eyes. A distant, temperate valley that was once an impassable frontier, before which a child had said, "When I grow up, I will live there."

In these woods in the depths of Corrèze, a young boy finds refuge in 1918, accompanied by his brother, a "gueule cassée" (WWI veteran with facial injuries). One war later, German soldiers delve into it, tracking one of their missing units. These same trees reappear in 2020, painted on the walls of an elderly German man's hospital room.

Today, the old man will speak. He will reveal the secret of this forest, which will shake many lives, many certainties. Many families.

From 1918 and 1944 to 2020, *Mon cœur restera de glace* (My Heart Will Remain Ice) covers a century of fratricidal wars. This dark novel, which explores the destinies of ordinary individuals lost at the crossroads of history, is also a novel about beauty facing violence. About the flowers that grow on battlefields.