ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES

Across the River and Into the Trees is Hemingway's powerful, poignant story of the inability to capture lost youth. His first novel to appear since For Whom the Bell Tolls, published some ten years earlier, it takes place in Italy, the scene of his earlier classic, A Farewell to Arms. The War is just over. In Venice, a city elaborately and affectionately described, Richard Cantrell, an American colonel, call passionately in love with Renata, a young Italian countess who has 'a profile that could break you or anyone else's heart'. Cantrell is embittered, war-scarred, old enough to be Renata's father but is overwhelmed by the selflessness and freshness of the love she is offering. But this is no fairy tales. The fighting may be ended, but the wounds of war have nor yet healed. And for some, the longed-for peace has come too late.