A Balcony in the Forest

Blurb

A Balcony in the Forest is a 1958 novel by the French writer Julien Gracq. It tells the story of a French lieutenant, Grange, who is assigned to an old fortified building in the forest of the Ardennes in the autumn of 1939, where he waits at the outbreak of World War II together with a few men.
An English translation by Richard Howard was published in 1959. The book was the basis for a 1978 film with the same title directed by Michel Mitrani.