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9780349118116

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'A remarkable book indeed, bringing us close to the huge face of war' J. B. Priestley; 'One of the most sensitive and moving books of the war, both authentic and poetic' A. L. Rowse, TLS; 'I've never read a better book about war; a book so humane, so wretched, so raw it had me choked half the time while I was reading it ... Woodruff is a poet' TIME OUT; 'A masterpiece ... In some respects it is a better book than All Quiet on the Western Front' IRISH TIMES

The 1944 landings at Anzio were intended to bring a speedy end to the deadlock at Monte Cassino, where the terrain and a fierce German defence had held up the Allied advance. Instead, troops were pinned down in a small beachhead, and six months of vicious close-quarter fighting ensued, until the fall of Cassino. The author was at Anzio; his novel is dedicated to those who died there and richly deserves the praise it received on its first publication. Poignant and harrowing, it describes the experiences of young men, old before their time, as they live and die in the utter chaos and brutality of war. The writing is simple, and more affecting for it, matter-of-fact in its depiction of the mixture of the horrific, the mundane and the courageous that is the soldier's lot; fragments of their stories are told to reveal the individuals behind the official statistics. An unforgettable read. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

From his birth in 1916 until he ran away to London, William Woodruff lived in the heart of Blackburn's weaving community. He eventually went to Oxford University and lived in Florida for over forty years. He died in 2008.

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