Unbelievably, two-time Prix Goncourt winner Gary's luminous last work is only now appearing in English, but it was worth the wait. Introducing us to Norman lad Ludo Fleury; his only presumably batty uncle Ambrose, the maker of magnificent kites; Lila Bronicki, the imperious Polish girl whose family has an estate nearby; and extended Bronicki family members, including German cousin Hans, Ludo's rival for Lila's affections, Gary chronicles a fraught love affair with the ominous buildup to World War II as a backdrop. Then he roars absorbingly into the war itself and its counterbalance, the Resistance. Ludo's determination always to love glorious drama-queen Lila, even as her family scorns him and war's tragedies unfold, echoes the steely certainty of local chef Marcellin Duprat, who serves Germans at his Michelin-starred restaurant during the occupation to demonstrate that French honor and standards will not bend. Gary uses limpid, accessible language (deftly translated) to deliver certain truths: memory can ground us or blind us; imagination, perhaps even a bit of craziness, is essential for survival; and we cannot easily be divided into heroes and villains. VERDICT Smart and wonderfully life-affirming; for a wide range of readers. [See "Editors' Fall Picks," p. 35.]

Published for the first time in English, this novel from Gary (The Roots of Heaven), two-time winner of the Prix Goncourt, follows a young man's passion through the ravages of WWII. Ludo lives with his uncle, kite maker Ambrose Fleury, in the small town of Cléry in the French countryside. Ludo, like everyone in the Fleury family, has an impressive "historical memory" that earns him the ire of his teachers and arguments with Lila, the object of his affection, who isn't as keen as Ludo to rehash the country's recent bloody history. Lila, the mercurial, naive daughter of Polish aristocrats, waffles about her own identity or plays at pushing Ludo away, but never truly takes on the contours of a fully-formed character. While characterizations of Lila can be maddeningly flat, Ludo's foray into the French Resistance—set against the backdrop of German-occupied France—is beautifully rendered. Gary handles the emotional tightrope of espionage and the brutal reality of battle with clarity and precision, all captured magnificently by Mouillot's translation: "I would climb the wall and go to wait for Lila in the lane of chestnut trees, and the stone bench, which had with the moonlight exchanged nothing but chill and emptiness for so long, welcomed us with friendship." This is a wonderful translation of a French classic. (Oct.)