There's No Home

Description

It is 1943. The allied invasion of Sicily. In a lull in the fighting, an exhausted British battalion marches into the searing summer heat of Catania, to be greeted by the women, children and old men emerging from the bomb shelters. Yearning for some semblance of domestic life, the men begin to fill the roles left by absent husbands and fathers. Unlikely relationships form, tender, exploitative even cruel, but all shaped by the exigencies of war. Centred around a love story, between Graziela, a young mother, and Sergeant Craddock, whose rough attempts at seduction are vindicated by his sympathy and the care he shows for her malnourished child. There's No Home offers an unerringly humane and authentic portrayal of the emotional impact of war.

Alexander Baron (1917-99) was born into a Jewish East End family, Baron joined the communist party at school and enlisted in 1939. His experiences at both D-Day and the Sicily landings informed his bestselling war novels, culminating in There's No Home (originally published in 1950). He went on to write fourteen novels and several screenplays.

An unqualified masterpiece ... as acute a study of the psychology of war as fiction offers us * Guardian *