A lieutenant writes of digging through bodies that have the consistency of Camembert cheese; a mother sends flower seeds to her son at the Front, hoping that one day someone may see them grow; a nurse tends a man back to health knowing he will be court-martialed and shot as soon as he is fit. In this extraordinarily powerful and diverse selection of diaries, letters, and memories—many of which have never been published before—privates and officers, seamen and airmen, mothers, nurses and pacifists, prisoners-of-war appear alongside each other. The book holds the voices of people from many different backgrounds and countries united by a desire to express something of the horror, the loss, the confusion, and the desire to help—or to protest. A Broken World is an original collection of personal suffering, grandeur, and courage, and defining moments that offer an unprecedented insight into World War I as it was experienced and remembered.