false <![CDATA[A Soldier of the Great War]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171121417m/87985.jpg 87985 14 For Alessandro Giullani, the young son of a prosperous Roman Lawyer, golden trees shimmer in the sun beneath a sky of perfect blue. At night the moon is amber and the city of Rome seethes with light. He races horses across the country to the sea, and in the Alps he practices the precise and sublime art of mountain climbing. At the ancient university in Bologna he is a student of painting and the science of beauty. And he falls in love. His is a world of adventure and dreams, of music, storm, and the spirit. Then the Great War intervenes.<br><br>Half a century later, in August of 1964, Alessandro, a white-haired professor, still tall and proud, finds himself unexpectedly on the road with an illiterate young factory worker. As they walk toward Monte Prato, a village seventy kilometers distant, the old man tells the story of his life. How he became a soldier. A hero. A prisoner. A deserter. A wanderer in the hell that claimed Europe. And how he tragically lost one family and gained another. <br><br>The boy is dazzled by the action and envious of the richness and color of the story, and realizes that the old man's magnificent tale of love and war is more than a tale: it is the recapitulation of his life, his reckoning with mortality, and above all, a love song for his family. 3279676 1991 A Soldier of the Great War total:1038|5:593|4:312|3:99|2:24|1:10| 1038 4568 1450 187 5 8 false false Tue May 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 01 15:56:11 -0800 2008 Thu May 15 11:35:27 -0700 2008
I suppose it is always true that we gain from books what we can relate to...more...]]> 5 4 false false Mon Apr 28 00:44:28 -0700 2008 Sun Dec 09 07:51:59 -0800 2007 Mon Apr 28 00:43:12 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 30 09:39:20 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 30 09:44:51 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 09 21:23:35 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 30 21:53:14 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Jan 29 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jul 31 06:25:44 -0700 2007 Thu Jan 29 14:58:41 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Jul 25 23:36:13 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 26 00:30:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Sat Nov 24 20:08:36 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 24 20:19:13 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Aug 20 18:06:03 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 20 18:20:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 16 06:48:15 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 25 09:31:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Sat Dec 13 17:46:50 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 13 18:35:13 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false true Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 26 13:33:15 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 26 13:54:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Aug 21 18:01:27 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 19:52:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat May 24 06:33:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 24 06:37:50 -0700 2008 You truly feel all of the emotions of the war hero as he recounts his life. Allesandro opens the story as an old man in 1964 looking back.
Mr Helprin is an extremely ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 13 09:25:51 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 21 10:32:19 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Wed Feb 13 18:34:49 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 13 18:37:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Dec 29 20:34:39 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 29 20:41:01 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 12 11:07:57 -0800 2007 Wed Jan 02 07:58:33 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Apr 15 09:43:07 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 15 09:55:16 -0700 2007
The descriptions of the first world war, of the countryside, of getting old, of Rome, of loving your children... were so vivid and real an...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Wed Jul 01 20:01:26 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 20:52:07 -0700 2009 I wa...more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Oct 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 09:49:52 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 18:43:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=87985