Love in the Time of War
Love stories set during World War I and World War II
Sentimental Journey by Jill Barnett
A desperate rescue brings together a researcher's daughter, Kitty Kincaid and J.R. Cassidy, a U.S. Army officer who specializes in impossible missions. During her ordeal in Nazi hands and the harrowing escape that follows, Kitty proves that while she may be blind, she's anything but helpless – and Cassidy soon decides that, while he can either lead or follow, he never wants to get out of Kitty's way.
The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella
Captain James Gould arrives in wartime Naples assigned to discourage marriages between British soldiers and their gorgeous Italian girlfriends. But the innocent young officer is soon distracted by an intoxicating young widow who knows her way around a kitchen...Livia Pertini is creating feasts that stun the senses with their succulence, and James is about to learn that his heart may rank higher than his orders.
Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
Pelagia lives on the island of Cephalonia with her father. The Italians soon invade, and the officer in command is the cultured Captain Antonio Corelli, whose most precious possession is his mandolin. It isn't long before Corelli and Pelagia are involved in a heated affair – but love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side. And for Corelli and Pelagia, it becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate the minefield of allegiances, as all around them atrocities mount, friends become enemies, and the ugliness of war infects everyone it touches.
A Cup of Tea by Nora Ephron
New York City, in the uncertain days of World War I, is home to Rosemary Fells and Eleanor Smith, whom Rosemary finds under a street lamp, miserable and shivering. Miss Fells indulges a whim of beneficence, whisking "the creature" home to share warmth, tea and a change of clothing. Once clean and dry – fortified with sandwiches and brandy – young Eleanor and Rosemary's fiancé meet in the hallway and exchange a look, the kind of look that will forever change the course of their lives.
The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
What happens when a trained killer discovers that his true vocation is love? Having survived World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns home to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend who was killed in action. With a suitcase full of sausages and a master butcher's precious set of knives, Fidelis sets out for America, getting as far as North Dakota, where he builds a business, a home for his family and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town.
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
In 1910, Stephen is sent by his company to northern France. There he falls for Isabelle, a young and beautiful matron, who abandons her abusive husband to be with Stephen. Six years later, Stephen is back in France, as a British officer fighting in the trenches. Facing death, he steels himself against thoughts of love. But despite rampant disease, harrowing tunnel explosions and desperate attacks on highly fortified German positions, he manages to survive and to meet with Isabelle again. The emotions roiled up by this meeting, however, threaten to ruin him as a soldier.
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the German attack on Caporetto – of lines of fired men marching in the rain, hungry, weary and demoralized – is one of the greatest moments in literary history. A story of love and pain, of loyalty and desertion, and written when he was 30 years old, represents a new romanticism for Hemingway.
Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull
From the French battlefields of World War I to a present-day nursing home in California, Patrick Delaney describes his longtime love for Julia, the wife of his best friend, Daniel, as he meets her as a young widow at a memorial service at Verdun, France, through their brief time together, to their ultimate separation and its impact on his life.
Shining Through by Susan Isaacs
It's 1940, and legal secretary Linda Voss has a secret. She's head over heels in love with her boss, John Berringer. Not that she even has a chance – he'd never take a second look at a German-Jewish girl from Queens who spends her time taking care of her mother and following bulletins on the war in Europe. For Linda, though, the war will soon become all too real. Engulfing her nation and her life, it will offer opportunities she's never dreamed of. A chance to win the man she wants...and a chance to find the love she deserves.
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Four people come together in a deserted Italian villa during the final moments of World War II: a young American nurse and her horribly burned English patient, an American soldier of fortune and an Indian soldier in the British army. Their stories of the past and of the present weave a spellbinding tapestry of how lives are caught and changed by the circumstances of war.
Ticket Home by James Michael Pratt
Teenage twins Norman and Lucian Parker fall for the same woman, Mary Jane Harrison. Sensitive Norman begins to court Mary Jane, but she soon leaves for California. Heartbroken, Norman joins the National Guard and tries to forget her. Meanwhile, volatile Lucien moves to California to attend college. Of course, he meets up with Mary Jane, and they begin a secret romance. Norman and Lucien achieve an uneasy truce when both are stationed in the Philippines just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Their bond is strengthened during the conflict, but only one brother survives, and the other makes a decision that will haunt him for the rest of his life.