Fans of Susan Isaacs’ Shining Through (1988) or Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient (1992) will delight in Gifts of War, a vivid tale of romance, adventure, and intrigue that explores what made War World I so tragic, so revolutionary, and so exciting.
The story opens during the Christmas Truce of 1914, when Hal Montgomery, a British soldier, is given a photo by a German soldier and promises to find his enemy’s English girlfriend and let her know her fiance is alive and thinking of her. But things take an unexpected turn when Hal meets the woman and falls in love with her himself, holding tight to the secret–and the photograph–that brought them together. Against the broader landscape of England in wartime, Gifts of War captures the era and the fates of men and women caught in the sweep of history.
Library Journal raves, Gifts of War “keeps the reader on a knife’s edge as the lies build and the truth is only a word or misstep away.”
It’s the perfect novel for book groups, so be sure to check out our Reader’s Guide.
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