- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Tuskar Rock; First Edition; 1st printing. edition (1 Aug 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1848870841
- ISBN-13: 978-1848870840
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 274,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"'Richard Bausch's Peace, set at the end of the Second World War in Italy, is a small masterpiece with the same emotional force and moral complexity as Conrad's Heart of Darkness.' Colm Toibin 'A short, bleakly brilliant one-act drama depicting the futility and moral complexity of combat.' Ben Macintyre, New York Times 'In the small firmament of American writers who're both superb novelists and eloquent short-story practitioners, Richard Bausch's star shines more brightly now than ever.' Richard Ford"
Product Description
The first publication in Atlantic Books' exciting new Tuskar Rock imprint, "Peace" is a powerful novel about war, trust and salvation that begs to be read in a single sitting. Italy, near Cassino. The terrible winter of 1944. Dismal icy rain falls, unabated, for days. Three American soldiers set out on the gruelling ascent of a perilous Italian mountainside in the murky closing days of the Second World War. Haunted by their sergeant's cold-blooded murder of a young girl, and with only an old man of uncertain loyalties as their guide, they truge on in a state of barely suppressed terror and confusion. With snipers lying in wait for them, the men are confronted by agonizing moral choices...Taut and propulsive - "Peace" is a feat of economy, compression, and imagination, a tough and unmistakably contemporary meditation on the corrosiveness of violence, the human cost of war, and the redemptive power of mercy.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I stumbled across this novel quite by chance, and am so glad I did. It is one of the best novels I have ever read.
The plot is simple. It is the closing days of the Second World War in Italy, and, having witnessed a killing, three American soldiers are charged with making a reconnaissance trip up a mountain with an old Italian guide to assess the retreating German army. As I say, a simple plot, but the exploration of the motivations and personalities of the four main characters is anything but simple.
With taut, spare language and a wonderful lightness of touch, Bausch explores all the big issues - life, death, memory, loyalty, morality, religious belief, war; everything, perhaps, but peace itself. Extrapolated from the individuals' experiences of the pain and fear and discomfort they are forced to endure, the entire human condition is explored.
Years ago, I read a book of non-fiction, with a similar setting - Naples '44 by Norman Lewis - which I also highly recommend. In Peace, however, through the fictionalization of the characters and their internal voices, the reader is invited not just to partake of the brutal facts, but also to make his or her own moral judgements.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I believe it is a masterpiece.
The plot is simple. It is the closing days of the Second World War in Italy, and, having witnessed a killing, three American soldiers are charged with making a reconnaissance trip up a mountain with an old Italian guide to assess the retreating German army. As I say, a simple plot, but the exploration of the motivations and personalities of the four main characters is anything but simple.
With taut, spare language and a wonderful lightness of touch, Bausch explores all the big issues - life, death, memory, loyalty, morality, religious belief, war; everything, perhaps, but peace itself. Extrapolated from the individuals' experiences of the pain and fear and discomfort they are forced to endure, the entire human condition is explored.
Years ago, I read a book of non-fiction, with a similar setting - Naples '44 by Norman Lewis - which I also highly recommend. In Peace, however, through the fictionalization of the characters and their internal voices, the reader is invited not just to partake of the brutal facts, but also to make his or her own moral judgements.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I believe it is a masterpiece.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
1944, South Italy. The closing stages of the war, the Americans are chasing the Italian Fascists and the Nazis north and out of Italy. A small group of American GIs stop a civilian cart when out of the straw in the back jumps a Nazi officer who shoots dead two Americans before being shot himself. His prostitute girlfriend is also shot despite not being a Nazi or having a weapon. 3 GIs are sent with a local Italian to go ahead of the main group up into the mountains to see if the way is clear. But as they make their way up they begin to question the loyalties of the Italian - is he a harmless old man or something more? The continuous rain becomes continuous snow, and as they get higher into the mountains, they get closer to the retreating army and the possibility of snipers...
I've never heard of Richard Bausch but was pleasantly surprised with this engrossing novella. All characters seem genuine and their dialogue very convincing. There were some fantastic scenes especially when the American Sergeant sets a trap for the sniper and stays behind to save his wounded men and waits. It's also vividly described so you can almost feel the punishing weather and exhaustion on the characters' souls. The book is very brief in pages and in events as the whole story takes place over the course of a night. It reminded me of that scene in "Saving Private Ryan" when the squad ambush a machine gun nest. It's got that pace and energy throughout.
If you're looking for a short read that'll nonetheless grab you from the first page, you can't go wrong with "Peace". A brilliant work.
I've never heard of Richard Bausch but was pleasantly surprised with this engrossing novella. All characters seem genuine and their dialogue very convincing. There were some fantastic scenes especially when the American Sergeant sets a trap for the sniper and stays behind to save his wounded men and waits. It's also vividly described so you can almost feel the punishing weather and exhaustion on the characters' souls. The book is very brief in pages and in events as the whole story takes place over the course of a night. It reminded me of that scene in "Saving Private Ryan" when the squad ambush a machine gun nest. It's got that pace and energy throughout.
If you're looking for a short read that'll nonetheless grab you from the first page, you can't go wrong with "Peace". A brilliant work.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is an enormously powerful novel about war and combat, the focus being on American forces in Italy in 1944. But of course it could be Vietnam, or Iraq. Bausch can write very atmospheric and precise prose - some sentences had me rereading them in admiration - and create fantastically believable characters. Three soldiers , no more than boys, on a mountain in the pouring rain on a dark night, with a taciturn old man from the nearby village as a guide, ahead of them the retreating German forces and potential snipers...
Strongly recommended.
Strongly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
snapshot of war's futility, but nothing outstanding
Richard Bausch's "Peace" has garnered many rave reviews, but is it any good? Personal choice of course, but for me it was an okay story, well-written and pretty darned short, but... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Jl Adcock
Peace
After reading the previous reviews I was rather disappointed in this book, for me it just did not hit the mark, I just couldn't get in to it or identify with the characters, I... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Robert
Unconvincing yarn
Comparisons with Heart of Darkness etc are very wide of the mark. This is a very slight book and seemed to me entirely unconvincing. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Oliver Griffiths
Yes War is Pointless - Just Describing It Doesn't Cut The Mustard
Describes a sad war scenario.
Even though it was a short book, it was a bit of a trudge to get through - always wondering if this was going somewhere. Read more
Even though it was a short book, it was a bit of a trudge to get through - always wondering if this was going somewhere. Read more
Published on 15 May 2010 by D. R. Armour
Short but memorable
A novella rather than a novel, this tale of a group of soldiers making their way across a wintry and hostile landscape almost has the feel of a ghost story rather than one of war. Read more
Published on 11 May 2010 by Marcus H.
Bill G England
Beautiful short desciption of the senselessness of war, where ever it takes place. Should be read by every young man who believes the lies that war is heroic. Brilliant.
Published on 9 Jan 2010 by W. C. Gold
A must read
Absolutely superb. A beautifully crafted little novel. I read it in one sitting. Thanks Mr. Bausch!
Published on 9 Jan 2010 by Mr. Dermott Gale
Superb
This is a superbly written novel (although really it's a novella) that grips from the opening page. You almost live and breathe the conditions confronting the bedraggeled tiny... Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2009 by D. P. Mankin
Simple but beautiful
It's a short novel and the story, set in Southern Italy in WW II, is relatively simple but the prose is solid and it is quite a reflective read. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2009 by Gerry McCaffrey
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