In 843 AD, the three surviving grandsons of the great emperor Charlemagne met at Verdun. After years of bitter squabbles over who would inherit the family land, they finally decided to divide the territory. One man inherited the area we now know as France, another became master of Germany, and the third received the piece in between: Lotharingia. In this witty and beguiling book, Simon Winder chronicles how various powers have tried to overtake the land that stretches from the mouth of the Rhine to the Alps, and he profiles the stalwart peoples who have lived there for centuries."[Winder] is deeply read and endlessly curious, a man with the enviable ability to make one share his obsessions."—Wall Street Journal