A soldier returns home transformed by World War I, sending shock waves
through the lives of three women, in Rebecca West's groundbreaking debut
novel
Jenny has been waiting for the return of her cousin, Lieutenant Chris
Baldry, from the faraway front lines of the war in France. She has kept
vigil alongside Chris's wife, Kitty, who has also been mourning the
death of their first child. However, when Chris returns to their
isolated estate outside of London, he is a man transformed, suffering
from shell shock and believing he is still twenty years old. He is
baffled by his surroundings, which have somehow aged beyond his memory,
and he's hopelessly, obsessively in love with a woman. Except--the woman
he's in love with is not his wife. He doesn't even remember her, or the
son they lost. Instead, he declares his undying love for Margaret, a
poor innkeeper's daughter with whom he shared a passionate summer
romance fifteen years prior.
Rebecca West published her often-overlooked debut novel at the age of
only twenty-six during the height of World War I, and was one of the
first writers to explore the impact of posttraumatic stress in
literature. The result is a tense, gripping portrait of sacrifice,
regret, and the transformative power of war to alter our understanding
of ourselves.