The Legend of Little Eagle

August 1944 – France. An American plane crashes near the small village of Verdeil in Burgundy. Nearly 70 years later a journalist, Hélène Marchal, hears of the event. But there is more to it: she finds a copy of a letter her grandfather wrote to the parents of the pilot who lost his life. She comes to understand that the house she has just inherited would have been destroyed had the aviator not sacrificed his life, by deciding to steer the plane away from the house. Her mother was four years old at the time, and was at home. If first lieutenant John Philip Garreau had bailed out with his parachute when there was still time, Hélène’s mother would have been killed. Hélène pales at the thought: she would not have been born if the pilot had not acted in a way which, to her, is simply heroic. She owes him her life! Who was he? The address on the letter is her only lead: Browning, Montana. Hélène Marchal decides to travel there to investigate, to go through the archives and try to find any remaining witnesses. Gradually she will piece together the life of a very young man nicknamed Little Eagle. With hindsight, his life takes on the dimensions of a legend. And with it brings the protagonists to question their own destinies. Florian Rochat is a writer and journalist who lives in Switzerland. He is the author of a previous novel, Cougar Corridor, and a memoir, Un printemps sans chien (both in French).