Author(s): Georges Simenon

Fiction

Against all expectations, Marcel Fron has made a normal life in a bucolic French suburb in the Ardennes. But on May 10, 1940, as Nazi tanks approach, this timid, happy man must abandon his home and confront the 'Fate' that he has secretly awaited. Separated from his pregnant wife and young daughter in the chaos of flight, he joins a freight car of refugees hurtling southward ahead of the pursuing invaders. There, he meets Anna, a sad-looking, dark-haired girl who seems foreign to everyone. As the mystery of her identity is revealed, Marcel has to make a terrifying choice.