A gripping, heart-shattering love story between two soldiers in the First World War.
It's 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that Ellwood is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt's German mother asks him to enlist as an officer in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, Gaunt signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood.
The front is horrific, of course, and though Gaunt tries to dissuade Ellwood from joining him on the battlefield, Ellwood soon rushes to join him, spurred on by his love of Greek heroes and romantic poetry. Before long, their classmates have followed suit. Once in the trenches, Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, but their friends are all dying, right in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.
An epic tale of both the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.
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In Memoriam 9780241567838 Paperback
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In Memoriam
Disappointing. I don’t feel that it warrants comparison with ‘Birdsong’, or even with ‘Goodbye’ to all that’, on which it seems, partly, to be based. Too much fascination with boys’ public schools and their impact on individuals; too much research without selectivity and to me, unsympathetic.one …
Disappointing. I don’t feel that it warrants comparison with ‘Birdsong’, or even with ‘Goodbye’ to all that’, on which it seems, partly, to be based. Too much fascination with boys’ public schools and their impact on individuals; too much research without selectivity and to me, unsympathetic.one dimensional characters.
- Authors:
- Winn, Alice
- Year Published:
- 2024
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Format:
- Paperback
- ISBN:
- 9780241567838
- Number of Pages:
- 368
- Publication Date:
- 29/02/2024
- Publisher:
- Penguin Books Ltd
- SKU:
- 9780241567838