By a Slow River (originally published in French as Les Amis Grizes, Philippe Claudel (translation by Hoyt Rogers), Knopf, 2006, 208 pages, ISBN 1 40004,280 1, $23.00 cloth. A French village policeman unravels the thicket of lies and deceit surrounding the 1917 death by strangulation of a young girl. Winner of the Prix Renaudot.

An Ace Minus One, Timothy M. Morrisroe, iUniverse, 2006, 618 pages, ISBN 0 59539 135 4, $30.95, paperback. A novel of WWI in the air. A 14 year-old American flees home after killing a man, and finds himself in France first as an ambulance driver at Verdun and then as a volunteer in a French fighter squadron. Look for a review in Camaraderie.

Severed Branch, Andrew R. H. Mowatt, iUniverse, 2006, 316 pages, ISBN 0 59538 994 5, $18.95 paperback, also in cloth from the same publisher for $28.95. This story of the RFC's air war in northern France moves back and forth from a present day protagonist to dream sequences, flashbacks to Royal Flying Corps aerial battles.

Megiddo's Shadow, Arthur G. Slade, Wendy Lamb/Random House, 2006, 304 pages, ISBN 0 38574 701 2, $15.95 cloth. For young adults. The story of a 16-year-old Canadian who, inspired by the deaths of his two brothers in WWI, enlists in the cavalry and is sent to fight in Palestine.

Messenger of Truth, Jacqueline Winspear, Henry Holt, 2006, 336 pages, ISBN 978 80805 07898 5, $24 cloth. Also available in a 2007 reprint paperback from Picador for $14. Murder at a convalescent home for disfigured British WWI veterans. Fourth in the Maisie Dobbs series about an English private detective who served as a nurse behind the Western Front.

2005

A Long, Long Way, Sebastian Barry, Viking Penguin, 2005, 292 pages (hc), 304 pages (pb), ISBN 0 67003 380 4 (hb), 0 14303 509 6 (pb), $29.95 hard back, $14.00 in paperback. The tragic story of a young, conflicted Irish patriot serving in the British Army who attempts unsuccessfully to straddle two worlds as Irish nationalists fight for independence while war rages on the Western Front. Includes an excellent bibliography of books on the Irish experience in the Great War.

First Casualty, Ben Elton, Bantam UK, 2005, 389 pages, ISBN 0 59305 112 2, $19.95 paperback. A WWI crime novel involving an improbable combination of trench warfare, shell shock, crime detection and conscientious objection. The author is best known as a comic novelist and wrote parts of the Black Adder series. Drew decidedly mixed reactions from readers and reviewers alike.

A Soldier of the Great War, Mark Halpern, Harcourt, 2005, 880 pages, ISBN 0 15603 113 2, $16.00 paperback. An Italian veteran remembers his war… Reprint of a classic novel first published in 1991.

A Test of Wings, Owen J. McNamara, Llumina Press, 2005, 212 pages, ISBN 1 59526 018 8, $16.95 paperback. Novel of a US Navy officer flying anti-submarine patrols off the southern and eastern coasts of England in 1918. Favorably reviewed in Naval History magazine.

The Canal Bridge, Tom Phelan, Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2005, 280 pages, selected bibliography, ISBN 1 84351 075 8, $19.99 paperback. A novel of Ireland and Irish volunteers during WWI. The author will speak at the WFA New England-New York Chapter Seminar at Hartford in November 2006. Available new for $25 postpaid from Glanvil Enterprises, Ltd., 237 Church Street, Freeport, NY 11520, or online from Irish Books & Media (irishbook@aol.com), or Dufour Editions (http://www.dufoureditions.com)

The Crimson Portrait, Jody Shields, Little Brown, 2006, 304 pages, ISBN 3 16785 528 8, $23.99 hardcover. Also available recorded on DVD and cassette. A novel about the pioneering treatment of soldiers with disfiguring facial wounds mixing medical fact with romantic fiction in WWI England.

Pardonable Lies, Jacqueline Winspear, Henry Holt, 2005, 352 pages, ISBN 0 80507 897 5, $23 cloth is the author's third novel about post-WWI British private eye Maisie Dobbs, a former BEF nurse. Winspear's first novel, Maisie Dobbs, was nominated for an Edgar and her second, Birds of a Feather, is now available in Penguin paperback. Both Pardonable Lies and Maisie Dobbs are available on disc and tape from Barnes & Noble.

2004

One of Ours, Willa Cather, Dover, 2007, 352 pages, ISBN 0 48645 599 8, $8.95 trade paperback. Reprint of a Pulitzer Prize-winning (1922) novel about a Nebraska farm boy who, alienated from his parents and rejected by his wife, finds his destiny on the Western Front. An American classic despite what have been described as stilted combat scenes.

The Enormous Room, E. E. Cummings, Dover Thrift Editions, Mineola, NY,, 2002, 192 + xiii pages, ISBN 0 486 42120 1, $3.00 trade paperback; an autobiographical account of Cummings' arrest and imprisonment for alleged treason in France during WWI. Cummings served as an American volunteer driver in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps. First published in 1922.

One Man's Initiation: 1917, John Dos Passos, Cornell, 1960, first published by George Allan & Unwin in 1920, LCC #69-15945, 179 pages, sketches by the author, notes, introduction. A passionate indictment of war with colorful descriptions of France during the conflict, this was Dos Passos first novel. He served Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps in France and with the American Red Cross Northern Italy before volunteering for the U. S. Army Medical Corps in 1918. Available used from several booksellers.

Three Soldiers, John Dos Passos, Dover Giant Thrift Editions, Mineola, NY, 2004, 309 = ix pages with an introduction by Heywood Broun, ISBN 0 486-43467 21, $5.00 trade paperback; first published in 1921, a grim fictionalized depiction of life in the WWI era America Army by the author who typifies the Lost Generation.

The Devil's Lieutenant, M. Fagyas, G. P. Putnam & sons, NY, 1970, 384 pages, Library of Congress card #77-105600. Available from independent booksellers found at Barnes & Noble online for less than $10 used in hardcover. A murder mystery featuring the Austro-Hungarian officer corps in 1910 Vienna and elsewhere in the ramshackle, multinational and polyglot Habsburg Empire. Intrigue in the Imperial and Royal Army as Austria-Hungary stumbles toward war. A fast-paced and finely crafted fictionalized glimpse of a decaying Empire written by the daughter of an imperial officer.

The General, C. S. Forrester, Nautical & Aviation Publishing Company of America, 1982, 263 pages, ISBN 1 87785 339 9, $19.95 paper. First published in 1936, this novel recounts the experiences in WWI of Herbert Curzon, a mediocre cavalry officer who rises from battalion command to head up a BEF army on the Western Front which collapses in the face of the German onslaught of spring 1918. Often thought to be the fictionalized story of General Hubert Plummer, this book makes an exceptional read. Forester is best known for the fictional Napoleonic War-at-sea Hornblower series and for his novel The African Queen set in WWI-era Africa.

In the Company of Eagles, Ernest K. Gann, Simon & Schuster, 1966, 247 pages. Gann (1910-1991) barnstormer, commercial and WWII USAAF transport pilot was the author of The High and the Mighty, Fate is the Hunter and 19 other bestsellers and one of America's premier novelists who specialized in aviation. This is the fictional tale of two combat fliers, one French, one German, fighting over the Chemin des Dames in the spring of 1917. Several of Gann's books have been made into major motion pictures.

Class 1902, Ernst Glaeser, South Carolina, 2007, 416 pages, ISBN 978 1 57003 712 2, $21.95 paperback. Another in the Joseph M. Broccoli WWI Series, this novel was first published as Jahrgang 1902, this book tells the story of the German home front as seen through the eyes of an under-draft-age youth.

Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War, Jaroslav Hašek, Everyman's Library, Knopf, 1993, 800 + xlvi pages, chronology, pronunciation guide, maps, pen and ink drawings by Josef Lada, ISBN 0 679 42036 3 $14.95 cloth. Hilarious classic satire first published in 1917 from a leading Czech author and WWI veteran about the adventures of a bumbling yet cunning Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Also available in Penguin paperback from Barnes & Noble. Buy this affordable hardcover copy for the fine illustrations.

A Very Long Engagement , Sabastien Japrisot (translated from the French by Linda Coverdale), Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004, 327 pages, ISBN 0 31242 485 2, $14.00 paperback. Also on nine CDs (10 hours) from the same publisher; ISBN 1 59397 566 X, $39.95. A young, polio-crippled Frenchwoman, Mathilde Donnay, investigates the web of deception that shrouds the fate of five soldiers condemned for self-inflicted wounds. All five, including her fiancé, are reported dead. Refusing to believe this, the shrewd Mathilde hires a private detective, enlists the help of family and acquaintance and travels far and wide to unravel the cover-up and find her missing lover. Told at many levels and in many voices, the is at once a war novel, mystery and a love story.. The author uses many techniques including documents, flashbacks and brief, but brilliant character sketches to paint a vivid vision of wartime and postwar France.

Winner of the prestigious Prix Interallie in 1991, and a best-seller in France, this novel received well deserved praise in the United States when it was first published here in translation in 1996. A movie based on it was released in 2004 and was subsequently nominated for two Academy Awards.

The Radetzky March, Joseph Roth, Knopf, Everyman's Library, 1996 (1932), 384 pages, ISBN 0 67945 100 5, $20 hardback; first volume in the Trotta family saga tracing the decline of the Habsburg dual monarchy.

Emperor's Tomb, Joseph Roth, Overlook, 2002, 157 pages, ISBN 1 58567 327 7, $14.95 paperback. Written by an Austrian novelist, essayist, journalist and war veteran about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during WWI and the post war-world of mitteleuropa. The second of two ironic novels tracing the saga of three generations the Trotta family; of world literary rank.

Plumes, Lawrence Stallings, University of South Carolina Press Joseph M. Bruccoli Great War Series, 2006, 276 pages, ISBN 1 57003 649 7, $19.99 paperback. The tragic story of a disabled American Marine veteran's postwar reintegration into family and Washington society. An autobiographical novel by the American playwright, movie script writer and author (What Price Glory, The Big Parade, The Doughboys) and WWI Marine veteran. This novel was first published in 1924.

Captain Conan, Roger Vercel, University of South Carolina Press, Joseph M. Broccoli Great War Series, 2007, 304 pages, ISBN 978 1 57003 713 9, $19.95 paperback. First published in 1934, this novel of WWI of French troops on the Bulgarian front and postwar occupation duty in Bucharest won a Prix Goncourt and war made into a motion picture available on DVD and video tape.

The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West, Dover, Mineola, NY, 2002 (1918), 77 pages, ISBN 0 486 42207 0, $5.95 trade paperback; a shell shocked British officer returns to his stately upper class English home suffering from amnesia. A view of the shifting nature of the British upper classes after the upheavals of the Great War.

Patriot's Progress, Henry Williamson, Sutton, 2004, 194 pages, ISBN 0 75093 640 1, $12.95, paper. One of two autobiographical novels describing the author's experiences as an infantryman in WWI which turned him into a Pacifist. First published in 1930. Williamson is best known for his prize-winning 1927 novel Tarka the Otter.

Three from Alexander Fullerton

• Sixty Minutes with St. George, a novel of the Zeebrugge Raid (2001)
• The Blooding of the Guns, a novel of the Battle of Jutland (Due Nov 02)
• Patrol to the Golden Horn, a novel of the submarine attack on Constantinople (Due Nov 02)

Two from Douglas Reeman

• The Horizon, 2002, $15.95 paperback, a novel of the Royal Navy and of combat in Gallipoli and Flanders. ISBN 1 59013 027 8.
  
  
• The Last Raider, Douglas Reeman, $12.95 used paperback, fictional story of the German commerce raider Vulkan sailing from Kiel in late December 1917.
  
  

Available from McBooks Press,(888) 266-5711 or go to www.mcbooks.com.

Contact Editor-in-Chief Len Shurtleff Return to Resources Index Back to the Western Front Association

Copyright ©1999 - 2002, The Western Front Association, US Branch
Website maintained by M. Hanlon