It is not just nations that are made and destroyed by war - families are scattered, boundaries of loyalty redrawn. The autumn issue of Granta explores the aftermath of conflict. Patrick French writes of a great uncle whose death in the Second World War transformed the family line.

A powerful new story by Thomas McGuane tells of fraternal rivalry and the truth of a mother’s past. A new essay by Aleksandar Hemon recounts a friend’s separation from his father during the Balkan Wars. From the familial to the global, here is what happens when the weapons are set down, brought to life in fiction, poetry, reportage and memoir.