A Soldier of the Great War

Written by Mark Helprin

A war-torn past and a young listener reveal a life of love and loss.

4.3/5 Goodreads · 8,158 ratings

860 pages

$22.99Save 5%

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Bookroo's summary

Alessandro Giuliani, once a privileged youth, now a white-haired professor, shares his epic tale of love and war with a young factory worker. As they journey to Monte Prato, Alessandro recounts his transformation from soldier to deserter, revealing how he lost one family and found another. The young man, captivated by Alessandro's dramatic past, begins to see his own life reflected in the story. Will this journey offer him a new perspective on love, loss, and the passage of time?

From the publisher

From acclaimed, award-winning novelist Mark Helprin, a lush and literary epic about love, beauty, and the world at war.Alessandro Giuliani, the young son of a prosperous Roman lawyer, enjoys an idyllic life full of privilege: he races horses across the country to the sea, he climbs mountains in the Alps, and, while a student of painting at the ancient university in Bologna, he falls in love.Then, the Great War intervenes. Half a century later, in August of 1964, Alessandro, a white-haired professor, tall and proud, meets an illiterate young factory worker on the road. As they walk toward Monte Prato, a village seventy kilometers away, the old man–a soldier and a hero who became a prisoner and then a deserter, wandering in the hell that claimed Europe–tells him how he tragically lost one family and gained another. The boy, envying the richness and drama of Alessandro’s experiences, realizes that this magnificent tale is not merely a story: it’s a recapitulation of his life, his reckoning with mortality, and above all, a love song for his family.

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