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BOOK

A WWII drama

Interest in the 1940 cross-channel evacuation of British soldiers amid the French collapse in World War II has sprung to life this summer, thanks to Christopher Nolan's blockbuster movie Dunkirk. On its heels comes Alone, Michael Korda's masterful account of that epic drama and its impact on his family. Korda, the English-born writer, recounts how he and his family had to cut short their vacation in France as war clouds thickened in the weeks prior to Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland. They were glued to the radio for Neville Chamberlain's grim announcement that Britain was at war. Family issues highlight some of the more fascinating dynamics in Alone, but the book is first and foremost a riveting account of the fate of the 300,000-man British Expeditionary Force during its retreat toward the English Channel as German tanks overran Belgium and set their sights on Paris in a blitzkrieg that left France demoralized and prey to a wave of defeatism and recriminations.