| Synopsis |
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I have to go home.
September 1944. Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France, reaches its conclusion. German forces are being pushed back from the north and south and the Red Army is close to the German border in the east.
Three German soldiers desert and head home. Facing Allied forces, French resistance fighters, the revenge of the Russians and the certainty they will be hanged by their own side if caught, they endure threats, torments and brutality.
The First Day is a gripping and harrowing account of the three men’s long journey through war-torn Europe, during the ‘forgotten D-Day campaign’, as Operation Dragoon became known. With the same mesmerising intensity he brought to bear in his debut novel, These Are Only Words, Simon Biggam tells a powerful story of determination and despair, of courage and cowardice but, above all, of the endurance of the human spirit. |
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| Author info |
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Simon R. Biggam worked in bookselling for nine years before moving into the performing arts sector. He is the founder of the Heretic Theatre Company and director of acclaimed productions, including The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband and Someone To Watch Over Me. The First Day is his second novel. His first, These Are Only Words was published by CHROMA in 2006. Simon lives in Glasgow.
Praise for These Are Only Words: Shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award.
‘Simon R Biggam’s debut with Edinburgh-based imprint Chroma takes one of the most compelling subjects – the mundanity of evil – for his creepy and thoroughly disturbing tale.’
The Scotsman
‘These Are Only Words is an intriguing first effort that brings to mind early McEwan, Fowles’ The Collector, and the doyenne of prowlers, Patricia Highsmith. Indeed, you might even christen our anonymous narrator Peeping Tom Ripley.’
Scottish Review of Books |
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