{"product_id":"9780375705021","title":"An Ice-Cream War: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Rich in character and incident, \u003cb\u003eAn Ice-Cream War\u003c\/b\u003e fulfills the ambition of the historical novel at its best.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBooker Prize Finalist\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Boyd has more than fulfilled the bright promise of [his] first novel. . . . He is capable not only of some very funny satire but also of seriousness and compassion.\"  —Michiko Kakutani, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1914. In a hotel room in German East Africa, American farmer Walter Smith dreams of Theodore Roosevelt. As he sleeps, a railway passenger swats at flies, regretting her decision to return to the Dark Continent—and to her husband. On a faraway English riverbank, a jealous Felix Cobb watches his brother swim, and curses his sister-in-law-to-be. And in the background of the world's daily chatter: rumors of an Anglo-German conflict, the likes of which no one has ever seen.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cb\u003eAn Ice-Cream War\u003c\/b\u003e, William Boyd brilliantly evokes the private dramas of a generation upswept by the winds of war. After his German neighbor burns his crops—with an apology and a smile—Walter Smith takes up arms on behalf of Great Britain. And when Felix's brother marches off to defend British East Africa, he pursues, against his better judgment, a forbidden love affair. As the sons of the world match wits and weapons on a continent thousands of miles from home, desperation makes bedfellows of enemies and traitors of friends and family. By turns comic and quietly wise, \u003cb\u003eAn Ice-Cream War\u003c\/b\u003e deftly renders lives capsized by violence, chance, and the irrepressible human capacity for love.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Funny, assured, and cleanly, expansively told, a seriocomic romp. Boyd gives us studies of people caught in the side pockets of calamity and dramatizes their plights with humor, detail and grit.\"  —\u003ci\u003eHarper's\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Boyd has crafted a quiet, seamless prose in which story and characters flow effortlessly out of a fertile imagination. . . . The reader emerges deeply moved.\" —Newsday\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47012892967152,"sku":"9780375705021","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780375705021_p0.jpg?v=1769917310","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780375705021","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}