Synopsis
An Ice-Cream War is William Boyd's sparkling debut novel on the grimly comic side of conflict, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.
'What do you think would happen if I shot an elephant in the balls?'
'I think it would hurt a great deal.'
Millions die on the Western Front but in East Africa a quite different war is being waged - one with little point and which is so ignored that it will carry on after the Armistice because no one bothers to tell both sides to stop.
As the conflict sweeps up natives and colonials, so those left at home and those fighting abroad find themselves unable to escape the tide of history bearing down on them.
Publisher information
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
- ISBN: 9780241970751
- Number of pages: 416
- Dimensions: 181 x 112 x 27 mm
- Weight: 228g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
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Brilliant Boyd!!
This is one of William Boyd's first novels and for me, one of his best. Weaving a fictional story around true events creates a 'ripping yarn' of a story th... READ MORE
World War One in Africa
I was given a copy of this book as a gift, and I am very glad that I was!
It is an excellently written novel based upon real events which took place in Ea... READ MORE