All war is hell. But for troops serving in World War I, it was the bloodiest trench warfare ever known. GENERALS DIE IN BED is a first-hand account of one young man catapulted from new recruit to walking wounded on the Western Front.
From day one, he’s surrounded by mud and fear. Artillery whistles down without warning. Boys, barely men, cry out for their mothers. Close combat is worse: sudden frenzied scrambles with German boys and bayonets that don’t come out smoothly.
Regular rotation takes them away from the front, and the weary combatants scramble for wine, women, or whatever will help them forget they’ll have to go back. This harrowing spiral continues until an ill-fated hill ge leads to a gushing leg wound and walking papers home.
A new introduction to this edition places Harrison’s novel with its literary contemporaries: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and A FAREWELL TO ARMS. Originally published in 1930 and acclaimed as “the best of the war books” by the New York Evening Standard, GENERALS DIE IN BED remains an unforgettable read.
