by Paul West
First published 2017
Alfred West came back from three years in WWI trenches half blind and shell shocked, a machine gunner forever changed by what he endured. Now it's 1939, and ten-year-old Paul watches his father navigate a second world war from their English home. They dig foxholes under the kitchen table and rush outside when Nazi bombers pass overhead on moonlit nights. Alfred teaches his son the details of trench warfare while remaining distant from the family, set apart by wounds that never fully healed. Paul grows from ten to fifteen trying to understand this enigmatic man who joined the army at fifteen and survived horrors that civilian life cannot touch. The boy learns to second guess his father's thoughts, but the veteran's compulsions remain mysterious. Through everyday moments of smoking, eating breakfast, and watching soccer matches, Paul approaches this "part ghost" of a man. The memoir captures the gap between those who survive war's devastations and those who inherit its consequences, revealing both the distance between father and son and the quiet heroism that connects them.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, memoir, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: England
Period: 1939
187 pages · Kindle Edition · McPherson & Company
Content warnings: war