The Winter of the World

Carol Ann Lee's THE WINTER OF THE WORLD (2007) pretty much sucked me in from page one. And I'm a little embarrassed that I loved it so much. Because it's basically a love story set against the background of the Great War. The principals are Alex, an English war correspondent covering the war in France and Belgium, and Ted, an infantry officer serving in the trenches - these two have been close friends since their school days - and Clare, who marries Ted in the early days of the war, coming between the two very close friends. Both Ted and Alex are orphans, and Clare, who was molested by her stepfather, has some serious baggage of her own, and she feels an immediate, visceral attraction to Alex when Ted introduces them. This sets the show more stage for an ongoing and tortuous love triangle that continues throughout the war years, moving from the home front in London to hotels and field hospitals in France, where Clare is serving as a nurse. Ms Lee has done some serious research about the major battles of the war, and it shows, with the Somme and Passchendaele figuring into the plot, as does "the Tin Nose Shop, a military hospital where masks are fashioned for veterans whose faces have been disfigured or shot away. The story encompasses all of the war years, as well as the years immediately following, with the interment of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, including all the planning, secrecy and solemn pomp and ceremony that accompanied it.

Love story or not, this is a damn good book. Beautifully written, thoroughly researched, there is nothing sappy or Hallmark-ey about it. I loved it. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

I didn't think I'd read this, because the prologue was so heartbreaking. Another reviewer reminds me, however, that I did read it. I disliked it thoroughly -- except for the prologue. I don't believe in love at first sight.