In Memoriam

Winn’s debut novel is harrowing and captures the staggering loss of young lives in the trenches in WWI. It follows a group of public school boys in their final school years before the war, and then when they command from the trenches. ‘In Memoriam’ is the newspaper that lists the names, ranks, and ages of fallen soldiers; and the scenes where the younger students examine the column to find out if their older peers and siblings have died is the most profound. She heavily leaned on archives from her own school, Marlborough College, to shape the fictional Preshutian school.

It’s primarily a love story, but I personally preferred the depictions of the trenches and battles at Loos and Somme, as well as the lighter moments in POW camps and soldiers’ escape attempt. Well worth a read, but the detailed descriptions of the trenches will likely make you shudder.