Page 209 "...in the hills of Brittany."

From page 209 of the book:  "...Their youth ended in 1939, when the seven were on a hike in the Hills of Brittany.   ...a jolt in the fault line, engendered by what no one could say, broke the sitting hill of sand and took Ebert's brother down with the ensuing collapse."  

and what made 1939 worse? A year later...

" ...he'd graduated in a Paris occupied by the Nazis."