Ten essential books about The First World War

Justin Go is author of The Steady Running Of The Hour. For the Telegraph, he tagged his ten favorite works about The First World War, including:

A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway

Not quite a war book, Hemingway’s novel of romance and disillusionment is at its best in its action scenes.

The account of the chaotic Italian defeat at Caporetto is masterful, as is the portrayal of one’s couple’s attempt to survive the war together, against overwhelming odds.

The love story occasionally drifts into cliché but its ending - deeply touching and painfully true to life - redeems the book beyond all doubt.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see: Molly Schoemann-McCann's top ten books about World War I.

A Farewell to Arms is #2 on Nancy W. Sindelar's ranked list of the six best Hemingway novels. It also appears on Drew Barrymore's six best books list and Jeffrey Hart's list of five books essential to appreciating American literature of the 1920s, and is among Atul Gawande's ten favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue