A particularly dark episode of French history known as the Dreyfus Affair, and a political scandal that rocked France in the 1890s and the early 1900s.
''Factional'' in that this is fiction based on well-researched fact.
It is a compelling read that begins with the public denigration of Dreyfus, as witnessed by the story's principal figure and narrator, Major Georges Picquart. The story continues with Picquart made a colonel, the youngest in the French army, and put in charge of the intelligence unit formerly responsible for Dreyfus' arrest and incarceration.
Despite Picquart's initial overwhelming confidence in Dreyfus' guilt, he begins to suspect that, while there may be a German spy in the army, it wasn't Dreyfus. His attempts to track the spy lead him into conflict with his superiors and a situation akin to that Dreyfus found himself in.
In the meantime, incarcerated in solitary confinement on Devil's Island, Dreyfus lives in near-impossible conditions. While absorbing, it all reads rather too familiarly.
- Ted Fox is a Dunedin online marketing consultant.
