The Frontier

If you think Maurice Leblancs literary output begins and ends with his series of mysteries featuring criminal mastermind Arsene Lupin, check out this tense thriller set in the years leading up to World War I. The Frontier is a classic war story and is that old idea of the conflict between the old and the new, between fathers and sons, and between the intense convictions of yesterday and tomorrow.

• The son is a professor of history whose studies have taught him how vain are bloodshed and violence.
• Probing questions of patriotism and nationalism, its a treat for lovers of well-wrought historical fiction.

The father is a rugged old French patriot who fought in the war with Germany, whose heart is still bitter, and whose hate flames quickly at the thought of Alsace and Lorraine.