Press room
Everything you need to write about it.
Journalists, reviewers, bloggers, podcasters, booksellers: here are the fact sheet, the images, the angles and how to get a free copy.
In brief
The essentials in a few lines
“Mental d'acier — On l'appelait Papa Joe” is a novel based on a true story: that of the author's grandfather, conscripted by force in annexed Alsace during the Second World War.
At 32, Papa Joe leaves his wife Catherine and his children, is sent to the Eastern Front and ends up fighting against his own country. He crosses more than 10,000 km — Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Italy — crosses the Carpathians on foot, fords the Danube, and joins the Yugoslav Partisans on 18 April 1944. He takes part in many sabotage missions, is captured twice, and escapes every single time.
The novel won the Historical Novel Prize at the Strasbourg Book Fair, 2023. Papa Joe was awarded the Croix du Combattant, recognised among the Évadés de Guerre (escaped prisoners) and granted the Combatant's Diploma.
Fact sheet
- Title: Mental d'acier
- Author: Daniel Auber
- Publisher: Amazon and BoD
- Published: 7 April 2024
- Pages: 462
- Language: French
- ISBN paperback — Amazon: 979-8-884128-70-5
- ISBN ebook — Amazon: 979-8-884128-70-5
- ISBN paperback — BoD: 978-2-322-54019-8
- Price: €21.90 paperback · €9.99 ebook
- Genre: historical fiction, based on true events
- Award: Historical Novel Prize, Strasbourg Book Fair 2023
- Contact: contact@daniel-auber.fr
Review copies
Get a free paperback copy
The publisher BoD offers a free copy to journalists, bloggers and creators, in exchange for a review in the media or on social platforms.
Send your request to presse@bod.fr
It must be sent by the journalist, blogger or creator personally, and include:
- Title: Mental d'acier
- Author: Daniel Auber
- BoD ISBN: 9782322540198
- Your full postal address
- A link to your outlet or social account (from 1,000 followers)
- If applicable, a link to a previous review of a BoD title
Commitment: publish a review in the media and on social platforms.
Interviews & events
The author is available for interviews, bookshop events and festivals. Write to contact@daniel-auber.fr.
Images
Free to use for coverage of the book
Right-click → “Save image as…”, or click to open the high-resolution version. Please credit: © Daniel Auber.
Quotable
Ready-to-publish quotes
“We wish to reward this substantial and historically rich work, devoted to forced conscription… This research into the resistance of forcibly conscripted men in Yugoslavia is not widely known in France.”
R. Seiler, journalist and historian — Historical Novel Prize jury, 2023
“J'avais faim et je devais me nourrir, coûte que coûte… Avec mon couteau,
j'enlevais l'écorce des arbres… je broyais ensuite l'écorce jusqu'à obtenir une poudre…”
Extract (original French) — crossing the Carpathians
“Il ne restait plus rien du pont, absolument rien ; une destruction totale !”
Extract (original French) — the railway bridge sabotage