The New York Times bestselling novel of humans in conflict with
inhuman events, Gone to Soldiers is "a landmark piece of literary
prose...the most thorough and most captivating, most engrossing novel
ever written about World War II" (Los Angeles Times).
In this "sweeping epic" (The Philadelphia Inquirer) of World War II,
Marge Piercy moves from the United States to Europe, from the North
African campaign to New Zealand, from Japan to Palestine, brilliantly
recreating the atmosphere of the wartime capitals: the sexual abandon,
the luxury and deprivation, the terror and excitement.
Gone to Soldiers interweaves the stories of ten remarkable characters:
The New York divorcee and writer of romances-turned-war correspondent...
her ex-husband, involved in intelligence for the OSS... Daniel Balaban,
whose mission is to crack the Japanese codes... Bernice Coates, who
escapes life to fly fighters as a Woman's Airforce Service Pilot... a
painter who parachutes into Nazi-occupied France to fight with the
Resistance... Zachary Barrington Taylor, for whom war is the most
exciting game... Jacqueline Levy-Monot, who leads Jewish children over
the Pyrenees to safety... her sister, Naomi, a troubled adolescent...
their cousin, Ruthie Siegal, a touching young woman who tries to keep
alive her love for her boyfriend, while working on an assembly line in
Detroit... These characters wage memorable and passionate public and
private battles, as war casts them into their ultimate dreams and
nightmares, daring them to act out their brightest and darkest
fantasies.
Written with unmatched authority about the cataclysmic events and
passions of war, Gone to Soldiers "is a literary triumph for Marge
Piercy and a landmark volume in the literature of war" (USA TODAY).
