The Living Unknown Soldier

In February 1918, a derelict soldier was discovered wandering the railway station in Lyon, France. With no memory of his name or past, no identifying possessions or marks, the soldiergiven the name Anthelme Manginwas sent to an asylum for the insane. When the authorities advertised his image in an attempt to locate his family, hundreds of relatives sought to claim him as the father, son, husband, or brother who never returned from the front. Marshaling a wealth of materialfrom letters and newspaper articles to accounts of battlefield deaths, hospital reports, and police filesFrench historian Jean-Yves Le Naour re-creates the long-forgotten story of the soldier who came to stand for a lost generation. In the process, he portrays not just the fate of one individual but of an entire nations great and inconsolable grief following a war that consumed the lives of millions.