Athlone Book Club read Alice Winn's In Memoriam in September 2024. They said
5 Stars
A stunning debut novel; heartbreaking, brilliant and thoroughly researched. It provoked a lively discussion for the book club.
In 1914, war feels far away to Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood. They're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that his best friend is in love with him, always has been.
When Gaunt's mother asks him to enlist in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, he signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings. But Ellwood and their classmates soon follow him into the horrors of the trenches. Though Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, their friends are dying in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.
This article was published on: 6th September, 2024
Filed under: Library blog, Reading
Tags: Alice Winn, Athlone book club, Book club thoughts, book review, Historical fiction, In Memoriam, LGBTQ+ fiction, Romance fiction