Love War And Ice Cream

Set in the years 1914 to 1918, An Ice Cream War follows the fortunes of two English brothers who enlist and fight in German East Africa. Contrasting the vibrant chaos of East Africa with the quiet gentility of Edwardian England, the novel tracks the brothers' very different but equally tragic experiences in the war and the pressures and sorrows of those they leave at home.

A vivid portrait of two very different families, revealing the triumphs, tragedies and twists that ultimately bring them together. Harry's family was overwhelmed by the enormous social changes that occurred after the Great War, dismayed as they were by the sudden disappearance of their way of life. Marina came from a family of resourceful people, willing and able to work hard for a better life. As war simmered, they emigrated from Italy to Spain, where they sold delicious ice cream. Then Harry met Marina. This engrossing saga blends the personal and the historical into an epic about love and duty, about family, and about growing up in different times.

Set in England, Italy and Spain during and after WWII, Love, War and Ice Cream paints a vivid portrait of Harry and Marina and their families, revealing their triumphs and tragedies, and the twists that ultimately bring them together. Right from the start, we realize that this is not the usual account of family life. For one thing, its in short story form, and then there are the adorable photographs and hand-sketched illustrations. There are even instructions for many well-loved family games and recipes: a humble Northern Italian milk soupshares space with the quintessentially English ginger cake, and also with the exuberant tortilla mixta from Southern Spain, all of which serve to celebrate the people we meet in this refreshing and innovative memoir. Harry's family membersthe Fairtloughswere overwhelmed by the enormous social changes that occurred after the Great War, and dismayed by the sudden disappearance of their way of life. Marina's peoplethe Camposwere resourceful, willing and able to work hard to better their lot. As war simmered, they emigrated from Italy to Spain, where they sold delicious ice cream. Then Harry met Marina. Blue Ink described the book as a superbly written memoir of two families who represent vastly different cultures Readers will fall in love with the whole bunch of Fairtloughs and Campos For more information, please go to: http://www.lovewarandicecream.com

Love & War As Never Before is a look at what life was like for a boy living in Pittsburgh from age five to nine during World War II: from that dreary, cold Sunday in December 1941 when the radio reported the bombing of Pearl Harbor, to that sunny day in August 1945 when the city, and the nation, celebrated in the streets long into the night. With that story as a baseline, Love & War As Never Before also reveals the ordeals of the boys aunts, uncles, cousin, and father serving in the war as it progressed from North Africa through Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany. They were aunts Margy and Nell with the American Red Cross; Uncle Martin, a battalion commander with the Hell on Wheels 2nd Armored Division; cousin Pat, a company commander with the 7th Armored; uncle Tom, a Navy lieutenant commander in the Philippines; and the boys elusive father, John, an intelligence officer with the 8th Army Air Corps. Their experiences are told through a trove of some four hundred pages of letters found yellowing in a crushed cardboard box in the corner of the fathers garage some fifty years after the conflict ended.

American, German, and British lives in Eastern Africa were turned upside down by World War I. Settlers in Eastern Africa, once friendly neighbours, reluctantly became enemies. As millions were slaughtered on the Western Front, a ridiculous and little-reported campaign was being waged in East Africa - a war continued after the Armistice because no one told them to stop. This is a story of the men and women swept up by the passions of love and battle, but it also elicits the cruel futility and tragedy of it all.

"Rich in character and incident, An Ice-Cream War fulfills the ambition of the historical novel at its best." --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

Find out what happens when a young boy finds his one true love, Ice Cream, and how far he will go to be with it.

Part I: An Odyssey of Childhood & Early Youth is a fictional account, together with personal, dramatic license, of the era of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. It focuses on the joys and fears of children and families in desperate times. Part II: War and The Home Front is a seamless continuation, focusing on fears and challenges of the familiar, principal character under fire in the Pacific. This fictional narrative, generating comrades in arms, tracks a Marine unit during World War II. Parallel are the same familiar characters who are dedicated to the home front's war effort and display loyalty and courage in crises