The Great Swindle (original title: Au revoir là-haut) is a 2013 novel by Pierre Lemaitre set in France in the aftermath of the First World War. It was published in French in 2013 by Albin Michel under its original title, and subsequently released in an English translation by Frank Wynne in 2015 by MacLehose Press. It won several notable awards, such as the Prix Goncourt, and was adapted into a 2017 film of the same name. It is the first of three planned novels of Lemaitre spanning the interwar period. The second novel in the series, Couleurs de l'incendie, was published in January 2018.The film See You Up There (2017) is based on the novel.
Very good novel, well written in the style of a thriller. Makes you realize that war is not only the death of millions but good business before, during and after.
The work is based on a true story, the incredible corruption in the business of reburying the dead soldiers, and a fictional one, the selling of never to be delivered memorials monuments.
Marqués à vie par les tranchées de la première guerre mondiale, deux soldats rentrent à Paris à l'issue du conflit. Pris dans un sentiment d'abandon, ils imaginent et mettent en oeuvre une immense escroquerie autour de monuments aux morts. C'est une fiction historique intéressante et plaisante, même si le rythme est parfois inégal.
