Will I love A Soldier of the Great War?

Alessandro’s closing in on the end of life, while Nicolo is fresh out of the pasture.

Their friendship seems at first principally a vehicle for Alessandro’s relating his extraordinary life story, but the honest confessions and tender gestures they exchange along their walking journey through the Italian countryside are rich and fulfilling for each.

They’re at opposite ends of their lives, and yet one senses each is hereafter under the influence of the other.

I’ll say it plainly: I think Helprin is our greatest living English language novelist. I have no idea how it took me so long to discover him, but once I did, I quickly and greedily read everything he wrote.

This is perhaps the best of the lot, in a crowded and competitive field – rich and warm and engrossing, and filled with moments of perfect beauty and wonder and awe inscribed in glorious prose that genuinely makes you catch your breath to be in the presence of such literary superpowers.

Settle in for a glorious ride.