In Memoriam

A Novel

De: Alice Winn

Narrado por: Christian Coulson

GMA BUZZ PICK • INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER AND AWARD WINNER • A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during World War I • “Will live in your mind long after you’ve closed the final pages.” —Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait

A Best Book of the Year: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, NPR

“In Memoriam is the story of a great tragedy, but it is also a moving portrait of young love.”—The New York Times

It’s 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. 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. News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting.

Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle—an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the glamorous, charming Ellwood—without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return. When Gaunt's family asks him to enlist to forestall the anti-German sentiment they face, Gaunt does so immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. To Gaunt's horror, Ellwood rushes to join him at the front, and the rest of their classmates soon follow. Now death surrounds them in all its grim reality, often inches away, and no one knows who will be next.

An epic tale of both the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.

©2023 Alice Winn (P)2023 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

2023, Center for Fiction First Novel Prize: Long-listed

2024, VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize: Winner

A Best Book of the Year: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, NPR, BookPage, Shelf Awareness, and Spectator

"Magnificent—dazzling and wrenching, witty and wildly romantic, with echoes of Brideshead Revisited and Atonement. I loved it.” —Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians

“An epic love story amid the brutalities of war.” —People

“Glorious, addictive, exquisite . . . I couldn’t put it down.” —Hugh Ryan, New York Times Book Review

Beautiful and haunting

A vivid and devastating story about how love survives — or doesn’t — the horrors of war. Winn is a master of prose and character, and she weaves bright threads of hope and humor through a tapestry of chilling violence and bleak despair. This book will haunt me for a long time.

Epic Gay Romance during WW1 Trench Warfare

Worth every hour of listening. Lost myself completely in this book; completely transported to wartime Europe in 1914.

Brilliant

A story that needed to be told & debut novelist Alice Winn tells it so brilliantly. A profoundly moving tale of love and war I won't soon forget.

This Story Will Stay With You

A devestating picture of the horrors of WW1 trench warfare, Ypres and the Somme, yet a marvelous love story.

A brilliant book

The horrors of trench warfare in WWII had me trembling with horror at the insanity of that war. I fell in love with more than a handful of vibrantly portrayed characters

Haunting. Unforgettable.

I just finished Alice Winn’s “In Memoriam” and it is a moving novel that takes you back to a time when the world was on the brink of unimaginable change. The book is set during World War I, it tells the story of two young men, Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood, whose friendship at an English boarding school grows into a forbidden romance. It’s a story of love, loss, and resilience in the midst of a war that reshaped the world forever.
What stands out for me is how honestly it portrays the horrors of war. Winn doesn’t sugarcoat anything. The boys are so enthusiastic to get into the war - there is almost a boyish naïveté about what war actually is. It’s as if they believe they are going off to play capture the flag. Then there are the the trenches which are described in graphic detail—mud, blood, and all. You can feel the fear, the cold, and the sheer exhaustion of these young soldiers, and yet there’s always a note of hope and humanity that keeps the story from becoming overwhelming.
“In Memoriam” is a haunting, unforgettable book that will linger in my memory for a long, long time. Alice Winn has written a story that is both a tribute to the power of love and a stark reminder of the toll of war.
If you love historical fiction - you will love this book! This one is well worth your time!

A Riveting book

This was an absolutely riveting read.

Alice Winn does an amazing job at bringing the horrors of War, and in particular, of World War One, to light. As a Historian who finds more fascination in the First World War, finding books like this is rare. It was as if I were living the war through Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt.

The LGBT love plot was also truly beautiful to read, and I found myself having to put the book down every so often to really let the ongoing plot soak in. I unashamedly cried a few times.

And finally, the characterization, and the way that War can change people, was so beautifully written. I...truly, could not give this book anything more than this without spoilers. And I think that, like one of our beloved boys, I could not find the proper words.

The narration is amazing as well. Don't worry when you get to the lists in the book. The first time the names were read, it through me off too with the overlapping words. But it is a brilliant directive vision to do so.

I am destroyed

I honestly don't know what to say other than what's in the title of my review. this has to be tied with the Song of Achilles as my favorite book. If I could only be granted three wishes, one of them would be to be able to forget this book and reread it as many times as I wanted to.

A must read

This book was difficult to begin. The subject matter is dark and weighty. But it is worth the push.

The brutality of war is truly depicted in this book brushing away all of the Hollywood and television glamour. It is raw, brutal, and heartbreaking on so many levels that this young author actually captures.

I thought the characters were wonderful. I’ve never met characters like this and I love all the research and information gleaned in order to create this novel. The poetry adds so much to capturing the time and idealism of the people losing their lives in droves, and when I say people, I mean children directed to their death by, forgive me but, idiots set apart from what was really going on and just hurling darts trying to see what would work without any thought to the Tens of thousands of lives they were taking and the generation and future generation their actions without any thought, decimated.

The historical

I couldn’t put it down. The history and realism was so good and the action! Trust me. Read it. It is the first book she ever wrote.