In all the breaths I’ve taken from you

“In All the Breaths I’ve Taken From You” is the story of William O'Neill, a poor boy of low class origin, born in Louisiana, the deep south of America. His adolescence is marked by the economic crisis and the Great Depression of 1929. William grows up in the poverty-stricken streets of New Orleans, where jazz and blues are the soundtrack of his youth . When President Roosevelt decides to go to war and mobilizes young Americans, William is assigned to the 116° Infantry Regiment. They land on Omaha Beach and he is shot in the chest, finding himself the only survivor in a sea of mutilated bodies. He will be found and rescued by a French farmer, Maurice Montreau, and led to his farm, Grandcamp-Maisy. This book, far from being just a war novel, is a profound reflection on the meaning of life, love and friendship, but especially about the strange succession of events brought together by fate: the war and the pursuit of happiness, paradoxically represent for Will, an opportunity of love and redemption for mankind.