Jünger's memoir of fighting in World War I. Unflinching and strangely beautiful.
Unlike the anti-war narratives of his contemporaries, Jünger doesn't moralize. He reports. The result is more disturbing than any explicit condemnation. War is presented as a force of nature, something to be experienced fully rather than judged.
The prose is precise and almost aesthetic in its treatment of violence. Controversial because it refuses to tell you what to think. You have to bring your own moral framework. That's what makes it powerful.