The Insomnia of Stars (L'insomnie des etoiles), by Marc Dugain

Marc Dugain is a French novelist who became famous for The Officers' Ward (1999), a novel set in World War I. His latest novel, L'insomnie des etoiles takes places at the end of World War II, in Nazi-torn Germany. The Allied Forces, the French ones in this case, occupy Germany. In an isolated farm, they find a starving girl left to her own devices, and, in a trunk, charred human bones. A French officer, an astronom before the war, feels that the mystery behind this macabre discovery could lead him to much sinister events that have happened in the past, in the village that is now under his control. He won't stop his enquiry until he finds out the shocking truth.

Dugain loves his writing to be concise; short sentences, clear ideas, effective dialogues. The officer's quest quickly becomes the reader's.  This is stunning writing and an intriguing story in a fascinating historical context. A real tour-de-force.