| A Soldier of the Great War Contributor(s): Helprin, Mark (Author) |
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ISBN: 0156031132 ISBN-13: 9780156031134 Publisher: Mariner Books OUR PRICE: $19.79 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: June 2005 Annotation: For Alessandro Giullani, the young son of a prosperous Roman Lawyer, golden trees shimmer in the sun beneath a sky of perfect blue. At night the moon is amber and the city of Rome seethes with light. He races horses across the country to the sea, and in the Alps he practices the precise and sublime art of mountain climbing. At the ancient university in Bologna he is a student of painting and the science of beauty. And he falls in love. His is a world of adventure and dreams, of music, storm, and the spirit. Then the Great War intervenes. Half a century later, in August of 1964, Alessandro, a white-haired professor, still tall and proud, finds himself unexpectedly on the road with an illiterate young factory worker. As they walk toward Monte Prato, a village seventy kilometers distant, the old man tells the story of his life. How he became a soldier. A hero. A prisoner. A deserter. A wanderer in the hell that claimed Europe. And how he tragically lost one family and gained another. The boy is dazzled by the action and envious of the richness and color of the story, and realizes that the old man's magnificent tale of love and war is more than a tale: it is the recapitulation of his life, his reckoning with mortality, and above all, a love song for his family. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Historical - General - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths |
| Dewey: FIC |
| Physical Information: 1.7" H x 5.3" W x 8.1" (1.48 lbs) 880 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Cultural Region - Italy - Sex & Gender - Feminine - Topical - Family |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: From acclaimed novelist Mark Helprin, a lush, 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Helprin, Mark: - MARK HELPRIN is the acclaimed author of Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, Freddy and Fredericka, The Pacific, Ellis Island, Memoir from Antproof Case, and numerous other works. His novels are read around the world, translated into over twenty languages. |