News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. ' IN MEMORIAM is the story of a great tragedy, but it is also a moving portrait of young love, and there is often a lightness to the book, even humor.It’s 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. as thousands of young men die in the most horrific of ways, Gaunt and Ellwood attempt to survive the slaughter and keep their love alive' Daily Mail 'Alice Winn's devastating debut will smash your heart to smithereens. 'In Memoriam is gripping, tender, immersive and, most of all, completely unforgettable' i, Fiction Pick of the Month I can't remember the last time I was this invested in a love story ' Sunday Telegraph Winn strikingly evokes the torment and brutality of life of the front' The Times

In Memoriam is at once epic and intimate, humorous and profound, a vivid rendering of the madness and legacy of the first world war as seen through the lens of a schoolboy love affair' Observer 'A vivid rendering of love and frontline brutality in the first world war. 'When was the last time characters in a novel seemed so real to me, so cherishable, so alive?' GARTH GREENWELL, AUTHOR OF CLEANNESS and WHAT BELONGS TO YOU I was completely absorbed, moved, and transported' CLAIRE FULLER, AUTHOR OF UNSETTLED GROUND 'Like looking at a black and white photograph which has been colourised. ' BIRDSONG for a new generation' JOANNA QUINN, AUTHOR OF THE WHALEBONE THEATRE please rush out and buy it' ELIZABETH DAY 'One of the best debuts I've read in recent years: immersive, rousing, tender and devastating.

Though Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, their friends are dying in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.Īn epic tale of the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.

But Ellwood and their classmates soon follow him into the horrors of trenches. When Gaunt's mother asks him to enlist in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, he signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings.

They're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that his best friend is in love with him, always has been. In 1914, war feels far away to Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood. Alice Winn has written a devastating love story between two young men on the Western Front' MAGGIE O'FARRELL, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF HAMNET It was only because Gaunt knew he might die, that he could be so reckless as to kiss him.

In memoriam alice winn