There's No Home

By Alexander Baron,

Book cover of There's No Home

Book description

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

It's 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…


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Why read it?

1 author picked There's No Home as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is an unusual novel in that it shows the lives of British soldiers in Sicily during World War Two, but there is no actual fighting. Instead we see the soldiers’ lives from the inside as they struggle with boredom, frustration, and try to interact with the locals. There are no heroics or sentimental patriotism, instead we see the soldiers in all their humanity, including their weaknesses. Above all it does what all good writing should do, takes you into a vividly believable world of emotion and behavior.  

From Gerard's list on human stories behind World War Two.

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