Goodbye to All That (1929), by Robert Graves, is a bitter autobiography by the British writer who served as an officer in the trenches during World War I. Graves participated in several battles and on one occasion was wounded and left for dead for twenty-four hours before receiving medical attention. Graves expresses nothing but contempt for the British army commanders and the British government that allowed such senseless slaughter.

Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (1930), by Siegfried Sassoon, is a classic memoir of Sassoon's life in the trenches during World War I. It not only describes the horrors of trench warfare but also shows the emotional wounds of the survivors. Like Graves, Sassoon has only withering scorn for the British High Command.

World War I produced an outpouring of memorable poetry. The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry (second revised edition, 1997), edited by Jon Silkin, is an excellent anthology that contains the works of thirty-eight British, European, and American writers.

Sébastien Japrisot's Women in Evidence (2000) is another mystery novel. It is set in the years following World War II and describes a woman's quest for the identity of the man who killed her husband. Like A Very Long Engagement, the plot is complex and leaves the reader guessing until the end.