It is essential to always remember what human beings have done and can do to each other. Cruelty and a lust for violence may or may not be innate, but in a time of fear, in a culture of survival, compassion is the rarest of human traits. These are important lessons, but they can overwhelm you if you immerse yourself in them for too long.

Which is why Wartime Lies, like The Painted Bird, is a gripping, harrowing book that I will never read again.

One more thing to consider is the contrast between this book and Suite Francaise. Was there a natural contrast between the experiences of the Poles and the French in the wake of the German invasions? Undoubtedly, yes. Yet Wartime Lies, as The Painted Bird before it, was much more savage. Of course Suite Francaise was never completed, so I suppose the argument is futile.