First published 2025
Frederic Henry drives ambulances for the Italian army during World War I. The work is brutal and the men around him grow more demoralized each day as they march through rain and mud. When Frederic meets Catherine Barkley, a beautiful English nurse, their relationship begins as a game but deepens into genuine love. The war intrudes on everything. During the chaotic German attack on Caporetto, Frederic faces an impossible choice between military duty and desertion. The battlefield creates a world where loyalty becomes complicated and survival demands difficult decisions. Frederic and Catherine try to build something lasting while the war threatens to destroy everyone around them. Their love story unfolds against the harsh realities of combat, where young men die far from home and the future remains uncertain. This edition includes all thirty-nine alternate endings Hemingway wrote, showing how he struggled to capture the right words for their story.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, war
Setting: Italy, Caporetto
Period: World War I
360 pages · Hardcover · Macmillan Collector's Library
Content warnings: death, war