Scharpenelle, A Small Story of a Great War

Scharpenelle, A Small Story of a Great War

For this story, Patrick Bernauw goes back more than a century. The true story behind Scharpenelle, A Small Story of a Great War unfolds during the First World War. Five Flemish soldiers find a toddler in the middle of a house struck by shrapnel. They take the little girl with them to the front and give her the nickname “Elisabeth Shrapnell.”

Around the same time, a doctor from Leuven, Dr. Scherpeneel, loses his family during the German invasion. His little daughter Isabel has vanished without a trace. Years later, he believes he has found her again in an orphan girl who calls herself “Scharpenelle.”

What follows is a search for identity, interwoven with war propaganda, soldiers’ tales, and songs and poems that circulated at the front. Bernauw weaves these small, true stories into a poignant mosaic meant to render the horror and absurdity of the Great War tangible.

Scharpenelle was awarded the Visser Neerlandia Prize in 2005.

More about the story at bernauw.com.

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