"The Return of Martin Guerre" by Natalie Zemon Davis

This is a truly wonderful little book that shows what a talented historian can do with the historical record to reconstruct lost worlds. Martin Guerre was a Provencal peasant of Basque extraction who abandoned his wife in the middle years of the sixteenth century. Some eight years after his departure, a man claiming to be Martin Guerre appeared in his village of Artigat and resumed Martin's marriage and his business.

This man was another peasant named Arnaud du Tilh, who was fortunate enough to have heard about the desertion by Martin and to have a fairly strong resemblance to him. Doubts were initially quieted by "Matrin's" intimate knowledge of his previous life, but a property suit brought into question the identity of "Martin Guerre." The story goes through two court cases, but is really complicated when the real Martin Guerre appears.

Davis is a fantastic writer who sifts through reams and reams of Toulousain court records and correspondence to tell this story. Using the sources, she is able to paint a vivid picture of peasant life in this corner of France, and integrates the story into larger movements such as the Protestant Reformation. She successfully resists the urge to say more than her sources will allow. The people of the village of Artigat become living, breathing beings. "The Return of Martin Guerre" is a testament to what history can be and to the truth of the old saying that, indeed, truth is stranger than fiction.