Baron Bagge - Alexander Lernet-Holenia

Baron Bagge, a cavalry officer during the First World War, receives orders from his unhinged commander to ride into Russian machine guns. But instead of meeting certain death, he and his brigade pass, unscathed, into a peaceful, otherworldly country where festivities are in full swing. There he finds himself entangled in a strange love, yet is harrowed by the threat of the enemy, and intimations from his fellow officers about the nature of his survival. A story of duty and desire, courage and stupidity, Baron Bagge is a waking dream of a novel.