An Ice-Cream War: A Novel
By William Boyd
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
--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 and dramatizes 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
William Boyd
William Boyd is also the author of A Good Man in Africa, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Award; An Ice-Cream War, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys War Prize and short-listed for the Booker Prize; Brazzaville Beach, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year; Ordinary Thunderstorms; and Waiting for Sunrise, among other books. He lives in London.
Read more from William Boyd
Waiting for Sunrise: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Restless: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brazzaville Beach: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Disquiet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Solo: A James Bond Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ordinary Thunderstorms: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sweet Caress Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5With A Field Ambulance At Ypres, Being Letters Written March 7-August 15, 1915 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBamboo: Essays and Criticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to An Ice-Cream War
Related ebooks
Sir Judas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Westerners Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHereward, the Last of the English Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJack London Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHawks of Outremer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Modern Mercenary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTarzan Of The Apes: “For myself, I always assume that a lion is ferocious, and so I am never caught off my guard.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Phantom Major: The Story of David Stirling and the SAS Regiment Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Egoist: A Comedy in Narrative Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Captain's Table Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dangerous Years Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Klondike Two Pack - The Call of the Wild and White Fang Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Tale of Two Cities + Great Expectations: 2 Unabridged Classics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Honour of the Flag (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Iron Horse (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Empty House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Undivided Union Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Lords of Strogue Vol. III, (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Land of Fire A Tale of Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trail of the Hawk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWar in the Air (1907) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Uncollected Stories. Volume II: "In the great war we fought men—men who grovelled and crawled on their stomachs like worms" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFort Amity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Tale of Two Cities + Great Expectations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTarzan of the Apes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tale of Two Cities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5THE PRINCE OF INDIA (Historical Novel) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Historical Fiction For You
The Grapes of Wrath Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Tender Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sold on a Monday: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Eve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Other Einstein: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Euphoria Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Light Between Oceans: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden (Original Classic Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5That Bonesetter Woman: the new feelgood novel from the author of The Smallest Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellow Wife: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tinkers: 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rules of Magic: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Life of Mirielle West: A Haunting Historical Novel Perfect for Book Clubs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Magic Lessons: The Prequel to Practical Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book Woman's Daughter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kitchen House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Island of Sea Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls in the Stilt House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hang the Moon: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Clockmaker's Daughter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quiet American Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for An Ice-Cream War
4 ratings0 reviews