Le coup de grâce

Marguerite Yourcenar

Set in the Baltic provinces in the aftermath of World War I, *Coup de Grâce* tells the story of an intimacy that grows between three young people hemmed in by civil war: Erick, a Prussian fighting with the White Russians against the Bolsheviks; Conrad, his best friend from childhood; and Sophie, whose unrequited love for Erick becomes an unbearable burden.