From the jacket flap
"Rich in character and incident, An Ice-Cream War fulfills the ambition of the historical novel at its best."
--"The New York Times Book Review Booker Prize Finalist
"Boyd has more than fulfilled the bright promise of [his] first novel. . . . He is capable not only of some very funny satire but also of seriousness and compassion." --Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times 1914. In a hotel room in German East Africa, American farmer Walter Smith dreams of Theodore Roosevelt. As he sleeps, a railway passenger swats at flies, regretting her decision to return to the Dark Continent--and to her husband. On a faraway English riverbank, a jealous Felix Cobb watches his brother swim, and curses his sister-in-law-to-be. And in the background of the
world's daily chatter: rumors of an Anglo-German conflict, the likes of which no one has ever seen. In An Ice-Cream War, William Boyd brilliantly evokes the private dramas of a generation upswept by the winds of war. After his German neighbor burns his crops--with an apology and a smile--Walter Smith takes up arms on behalf of Great Britain. And when Felix's brother marches off to defend British East Africa, he pursues, against his better judgment, a forbidden love affair. As the sons of the world match wits and weapons on a continent thousands of miles from home, desperation makes bedfellows of enemies and traitors of friends and family. By turns comic and quietly wise, An Ice-Cream War deftly renders lives capsized by violence, chance, and the irrepressible human capacity for love.
"Funny, assured, and cleanly, expansively told, a seriocomic romp. Boyd gives us studies of people caught in the side pockets of calamity anddramatizes their plights with humor, detail and grit." --"Harper's" "Boyd has crafted a quiet, seamless prose in which story and characters flow effortlessly out of a fertile imagination. . . . The reader emerges deeply moved." --"Newsday"
Details
- Title An Ice-Cream War
- Author William Boyd
- Binding Paperback
- Edition 1st Vintage Inte
- Pages 416
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Vintage, New York, New York
- Date 1999-10-05
- Features Maps
- ISBN 9780375705021 / 0375705023
- Weight 0.76 lbs (0.34 kg)
- Dimensions 7.98 x 5.32 x 0.91 in (20.27 x 13.51 x 2.31 cm)
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: 1900-1949
- Chronological Period: 1900-1919
- Cultural Region: African
- Cultural Region: East Africa
- Library of Congress subjects War stories, World War, 1914-1918 - Africa, East - Fiction
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 99018313
- Dewey Decimal Code FIC
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