Vessel of Sadness

Italy, 1944 — the setting of one of the most convincing and quietly magnificent stories about men and war ever written. Here — distilled from the experiences and observations of one who fought with them in the British infantry unit — is the mood of those who fought and died at Anzio. Their task — to seize the Alban Hills and then Rome, forty miles away. Instead, for more than four months they sank into the mud of the Anzio plain and fought for their lives. Since Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, nothing has appeared that can compare with this book's ability to penetrate the minds of men at war. There are no heroes, no heroines, no victories. This is a faceless, nameless, fragmented war. Even national differences — British, Italian, German, American — merge and are forgotten in this larger story of humanity. This story, in fact, does not need to be Anzio; it could be any battlefield where men have faced death.