NYRB Classics discussion

Fortunes of War: The Levant Trilogy



Publication Date: June 10, 2014
Pages: 592
Originally published as follows: The Danger Tree in 1977; The Battle Lost and Won in 1978; and The Sum of Things in 1980.

It’s the spring of 1941 and the German army’s eastward march appears unstoppable. In the Egyptian desert, the young officer Simon Boulderstone, twenty years old and wet behind the ears, waits in dreadful anticipation of his first experience of combat. The people of Cairo are waiting, too. In crowded apartments, refugees from Europe wait; in palm-shaded mansions, Anglo-Egyptians wait. At night they are joined in the city’s bars and cabarets by soldiers on leave, looking for a last dance before going off to the front lines.

Into this mix enter Guy and Harriet Pringle, whose story began in Olivia Manning’s magisterial Balkan Trilogy . They have successfully escaped Nazi-occupied Greece but are dogged by uncertainties about their marriage. And, as Simon discovers that the realities of war are both more prosaic and more terrible than he had imagined, Harriet is forced to confront her precarious health and her place beside her husband.

Looks like this was pushed back from May 13 to May 27. Post above updated.

This title has been pushed from May 27 to June 10.

Out today! Moved to the "General Discussion" thread.