Citizens and Soldiers

As a doctor in a military hospital in Haguenau, near Strasbourg,Alfred Döblin witnessed the chaotic two weeks between the Kaiser’s abdication and the evacuation of Germans from Alsace, when everyone – military and civilian, high official to lowly cleaning lady – had to negotiate a game without rules as the old (Prussian) order broke down and the new (French) order had not yet arrived. So Döblin was uniquely placed to write this extraordinary historical novel, where, beneath the colourful surface of individuals and events, he seeks to account for the War – the 20th century’s primal sin.
After 85 years Citizens and Soldiers at last reaches the Anglophone world. First published in Amsterdam and Stockholm in October 1939, the novel had little chance to circulate. After the War, French censors vetoed its publication (as part of a now 4-volume epic November 1918 – A German Revolution), fearing it would stir up Franco-German resentments.The 1980s English translation of November 1918 omitted this first volume entirely.
Chris Godwin’s lively translation enables English readers to savour a remarkable and important epic work by a writer at the peak of his powers.