Introduction

Henry Childs is just seventeen when he falls into a love affair so intense it nearly consumes him. But Mercy’s family disapproves, and the two young lovers flee to New Orleans to play out their passionate affair, until Mercy’s father hunts them down, takes his daughter home, and sends Henry running for his life.
The time is 1950, and the Korean War hangs in the balance. Descended from a long line of soldiers, Henry enlists in the Marines and arrives in Korea on the eve of the brutal battle of the Chosin Reservoir, with temperatures fifty degrees below zero and an enemy force far beyond the scope of his imagining. But the challenges he meets upon his return home, scarred and haunted, are greater by far.
Award-winning author Robert Olmstead takes us into one of the most physically challenging battles in history and, with just as much intensity, into an electrifying,
all-consuming love affair. 

Editorial Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2012: Spare. Elegiac. Well-crafted. These are words used to describe Robert Olmsteadâ??s novel The Coldest Nightâ??and all of them are trueâ??but what really makes the book special is the imagery and emotion throughout. A seventeen-year-old Henry falls in love with Mercy, the young daughter of a judge. They run away to New Orleans, where they create their own private Eden, but eventually Mercyâ??s family locates them and forces the two lovers apart. Seeing few alternatives, Henry enlists to fight in the Korean War. One could read far into this novel and think that it is a book built around young love. But when Henry goes to Korea, the language lifts off to a new level. Though spare in its presentation, The Coldest Night is a novel of surprises. It is emotional and frequently profound.

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