About the book: 1914 / A man was lying on a bed near the window in one of the wards of a French military hospital in Toulon. Dr. Dumain, who gave me a tour of the floors, was called into the next room - to a patient who had begun to delirium, but before leaving, he managed to tell me that the man's name was Bonneau and that two days ago he shot himself in the chest in the barracks fort.