In Memoriam [J0461-PB]

2024 PB in nice clean condition. GMA BUZZ Pick • International Best Seller and Award Winner • A Best Book of the Year: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, NPR. A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during a time of war. 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.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Absolutely incredible. This is such a gorgeous book!! I loved reading it. Multiple times I found myself doing something else but daydreaming about the book, wishing I was reading it instead."; "Beautifully written. The little gay love story that could, against the backdrop of the horror show of WW1 in the trenches. The prose is a thoughtful, caring guide through these schoolboys' ordeals of repression, forbidden love, terror, the gradual onset of PTSD. The mental health themes were really well handled."; "A spellbinding book that should be read as a warning to every generation of the real effects of war on peoples' lives."; "I don't have the vocabulary to accurately describe the way this book absolutely wrecked me. I was sobbing by the end, but I loved every second of it. This is one of my favorite books I've ever had the privilege to read. The story will stick with me for years. Absolutely amazing for a debut."