Zone Rouge

We are démineurs. We dismantle bombs. 

Ferrand Martin and his team of démineurs spend their days in the ruined fields of Zone Rouge on the periphery of modern day Verdun, France where they clean up the artillery and explosives used in World War I. One bullet, one bit of shrapnel, one bomb at a time. The work, they say, is not measured in days, months, or years, but in generations. It’s taken a century to get this far, and it will take many more centuries to complete. 

One morning, a routine call to pick up a half-buried artillery shell turns out to be much more than just a single missile: they discover a human skeleton, fully intact. Ferrand and his fellow démineurs dig deep into poisoned soil to reveal the past is rarely ever distant from the present. 

This startling discovery kicks off a series of events that sees the usually desolate Zone Rouge teem with activity as academics, politicians, and locals all wrangle over the legacy of the War and what it means to remember. Zone Rouge is a brilliant reimagining of the Sisyphus myth suffused with our contemporary anxieties over war, climate, class, and the ghosts of our pasts. 

"In the way only the best anti-war literature does, Plunkett immerses us in the lasting consequences of humanity's old, ruinous lie..." –Matt Gallagher, author of DAYBREAK 

Michael Jerome Plunkett is a writer from Long Island. He served in the United States Marine Corps and worked as an EMT in South Carolina. He is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the Literature of War Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to enriching the minds of those in uniform by providing access to exceptional literature and fostering meaningful discussions around military experiences, leadership, and the human condition. He hosts its podcast, The LitWar Podcast which has featured guests such as Elliot Ackerman, Phil Klay, and Emily St. John Mandel. He led the Patrol Base Abbate Book Club for veterans and hosted guests such as Sebastian Junger, Ocean Vuong, and Kaveh Akbar. He was a 2021 VCCA Fellow. He was a scholar in the 2024 Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. He was a 2025 resident in the Edith Wharton Writing Residency. His writing has been published in The Wrath-Bearing Tree, The War Horse, Leatherneck Magazine, Coffee or Die, Dirtbag Magazine, and Lethal Minds Journal. Zone Rouge is his debut novel.