An authoritative and revelatory portrait of a nation divided - by class, by politics and by the legacy of the past - from the author of The French Intifada.

The old ideals that formed the French Republic have crumbled to a battleground of competing ideologies and cultures. Here, Hussey travels from the post-industrial north to the badlands of the south, speaking to commentators, writers, and politicians, talking with locals and walking the streets, to trace the social, political and economic fault-lines that are shaping the new France.

"The images of modern France that Andrew Hussey draws are varied, but most point to trouble ahead in what is still one of Europe's more equitable large countries. This book is a set of recent stories which only a fool would ignore" - author of Seven Children and Shattered Nation

"Hussey's work gives an intelligent overview and a personal account of the social and political quandaries of France today... Lively, balanced, and compassionate, with an eye for telling detail" - Professor of Modern History at All Souls College, Oxford and author of The Man on Devil’s Island: Alfred Dreyfus and the Affair That Divided France

"[A] convivial and courageous observer... [A] poignant, shocking, informative and funny book" - Spectator

"Andrew Hussey's new book, Fractured France: A Journey Through a Divided Nation could not be better timed, and few people are better qualified to take us on this journey. Hussey has long been a sharp-eyed observer of France... The breadth of his knowledge of French culture, both popular and literary, is impressive" - New Statesman

"Fractured France could not be more timely... A mixture of memoir, travelogue and personal confession, punctuated with gossip, history lessons, interviews with writers and intellectuals, and chats with 'ordinary' French citizens" - Observer