Please help... the plot of this book is roughly this: a man returns home from WWII... in France I think... but actually returns to the home of one of his fallen comrades, and pretends to have his identity, and everyone else also agrees to this charade through a strange, unspoken agreement. As though it is easier to pretend to the charade than to face the reality...

I'm sure this is a fairly popular book... any ideas?

Well, I figured it out on my own. It's Graham Greene's The Tenth Man. I had a few facts screwed up, so maybe that threw everyone off. There you have it though.

Dave, that's what I call self-rescue!