A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during World War I • “Dazzling and wrenching, witty and wildly romantic, with echoes of Brideshead Revisited and Atonement.” —Lev Grossman, bestselling author of The Magicians It’s 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front 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. News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting. Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle—an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the glamorous, charming Ellwood—without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return. When Gaunt's family asks him to enlist to forestall the anti-German sentiment they face, Gaunt does so immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. To Gaunt's horror, Ellwood rushes to join him at the front, and the rest of their classmates soon follow. Now death surrounds them in all its grim reality, often inches away, and no one knows who will 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.
"Un relato intenso y dramático de lo que le ocurrió a toda una generación de jóvenes que fueron a luchar a la guerra. Muchos no sobrevivieron al absurdo de las estrategias de guerra de sus superiores, o a la artillería creada expresamente para despedazarlos. Los que sobrevivieron nunca fueron los mismos, mutilados o graves daños psicológicos, terminaron siendo la consecuencia de una guerra absurda. La autora relata todos estos hechos a partir de la historia de dos amigos: Henry y Ellwood, muchachos de un colegio privado inglés que comparten experiencias y un amor que poco a poco se hará patente cuando tengan conciencia de que cualquier orden o movilización podría ser el último día de sus vidas. Pero con estos personajes también conoceremos brevemente las circunstancias del bando enemigo, cuyas angustias y miedos son los mismos que las del otro lado de la trinchera; lo que nos habla, que en una guerra, los únicos que pierden son los pobladores. "