This book was so moving, I couldn't put it down. With books that are this large (800+ pages), I usually can find several parts that i could've done without. NOT SO with this one. Every sentence was perfect.

I was moved by the spirituality of the main characters, and his pure love of life.

I have to admit that i knew next to nothing about WWI and the mountain fighting. Some of the fight scenes were terrifying, but gave me a glimpse of why and how he became the man he did.

A novel of epic length and scope--A Soldier of the Great War explores the search for beauty and meaning in life during a time of war and chaotic disorder. Inside its framework tale of the elderly Alessandro and the youthful Nicolo walking to Monte Prato lie a huge range of episodes that explore life's greatest themes.

Helprin\\\'s prose is masterful and, in certain passages, breathtaking, transcendent. Follow Allesandro\\\'s odyssey through the beauty that was Italy when the world was still young, skirt the edges of World War I as it was fought on the alpine borders, to find yourself at the end, inexplicably moved by the graceful and elegant telling of this magnificent tale.