I'm not sure how I stumbled across this title, but it is a real gem. Written by Flemish-Belgian writer Stefan Hertmans, the book-- part memoir, part scrapbook, part historical fiction, is cobbled together from the notebooks and reminiscences of the author's grandfather. His hard-knock upbringing in Ghent rivals anything that Dickens described in the poor districts of London. The central part of the book consists of his grandfather's harrowing accounts as a soldier describing the brutality of World War I. The scenes exceed even the shock-value of some of the montages in the recent movie 1917. The book ends with his marriage to the sister of his beloved, after the former succumbed to the flu of 1918. This is a history of 20th century Europe, but at the same time it serves as a nuanced and multilayered glimpse into an intimate and personal family history.