Since the days of Voltaire’s Candide and even before (Grimmelshausen’s Simplicissimus or Homer’s Illiad….), war has had a prominent place in literature.
I recently had a look at my TBR piles and realized I would easily come up with 12 books centering on one war or the other. I ruled out quite a few books, like Matterhorn, The Thin Red Line and Catch 22, as they were by far too long. I hope that much more people will feel like participating, if the books are not too chunky. The only really substantial one I included is Elsa Morante’s La Storia aka History. As you can see, there are always a few novels on the same war following each other.
I would like to post on the chosen books on the last Friday of every month which leaves us with the following dates.
January, Friday 28
Susan Hill: Strange Meeting (UK), WWI, 192 pages
February, Friday 25
Jennifer Johnston: How Many Miles to Babylon? (Ireland), WWI, 156 pages
March, Friday 25
Rebecca West: The Return of the Soldier (UK), WWI, 92 pages
April, Friday 29
Carol Ann Lee: The Winter of the World (UK), WWI, 316
May, Friday 27
Shusaku Endo: The Sea and Poiso aka Umi to dokuyaku (Japan), WWII, 167 pages
June, Friday 24
Primo Levi: If this is a man aka Se questo è un uomo (Italy), WWII, 180 pages
July, Friday 29
Marguerite Duras: Hiroshima, mon amour (France), WWII, 155 pages
August, Friday 26
Elsa Morante: History aka La Storia (Italy), WWII, 768 pages
September, Friday 30
Tim O’Brien: The Things They Carried (US), Vietnam, 256 pages
October, Friday 28
Tatjana Soli: The Lotus Eaters (US), Vietnam, 400 pages
November, Friday 25
Michael Shaara: The Killer Angels (US), American Civil War, 416 pages
December, Friday 30
Charles Frazier: Cold Mountain (US), American Civil War, 448 pages
I hope that some of you will participate in reading the one or the other, or even all of them. All the books are available in English, apart from Hiroshima, mon amour. Should anyone feel like participating anyway, I suggest you watch the movie instead as the book is actually a script.
I created a page that will be accessible at all times. You can always leave comments. If you are planning on reading along and want to post as well, leave the comment in advance on the page so I can add your link to the post. Alternatively you can always add the link in the comments section.
I am really looking forward to this and hope that others might enjoy the idea as well.