On Leave

(Faber and Faber) With his translation of On Leave, a French novel by Daniel Anselme published in 1957, David Bellos revives a lost classic that follows three Parisian soldiers home on leave from the Algerian War. The novel evokes the terror and shame felt by men returning from war and adds to the narratives surrounding one of the darkest times in French colonial history. Bellos is a professor of French, Italian, and comparative literature at Princeton University, where he also is the director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication.