logo
pagesback-cover
69
Reddit meter
all mentions

A Soldier of the Great War

880 pages, 2005

fiction

fiction

1382 books

Alessandro Giuliani, the young son of a prosperous Roman lawyer, enjoys an idyllic life full of privilege. He races horses across the country to the sea, climbs mountains in the Alps, and, while a student of painting at the ancient university in Bologna, he falls in love.

Then, the Great War intervenes. Half a century later, in August of 1964, Alessandro, a white-haired professor, tall and proud, meets an illiterate young factory worker on the road.

As they walk toward Monte Prato, a village seventy kilometers away, the old man—a soldier and a hero who became a prisoner and then a deserter, wandering in the hell that claimed Europe—tells him how he tragically lost one family and gained another.

The boy, envying the richness and drama of Alessandro's experiences, realizes that this magnificent tale is not merely a story: it's a recapitulation of his life, his reckoning with mortality, and above all, a love song for his family.

Recommendations

1
Naval Ravikant

Naval Ravikant

entrepreneurmedia personalitytechnologyventure capitalist

A Soldier of the Great War found in libraries

1
102 books

Best War Books

Learn about interesting conflicts and gruesome wars from the past with the Best War Books from our collection.