It is 1914, and Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood, and their classmates, safe in an idyllic boarding school in the English countryside, perceive the war as something distant. They are seventeen years old, so they are too young to enlist, and besides, Gaunt is busy fighting his own battle: he is hopelessly in love with his best friend, the charming and elegant Ellwood, and has no idea that Ellwood feels the same way about him.

When Gaunt’s German mother asks him to enlist in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, the young man obeys immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood.

The front is horrible, as expected, and although Gaunt tries to dissuade Ellwood from following him to the battlefield, he soon shows up there. In the trenches, they find fleeting moments of comfort together.

In Memoriam is an epic story about the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden love that blooms in its grip. A stunning debut.

“A heartbreaking love story between two young men who move from the idyllic protection of their private school to the indescribable horrors of the Western Front.” – MAGGIE O'FARRELL

“In Memoriam is a magnificent novel. Dazzling and heartbreaking, witty and romantic to the fullest, with echoes of Brideshead Revisited and Atonement. I loved it.” – LEV GROSSMAN

“Alice Winn has achieved an astonishing feat by bringing these men and the horrors of World War I to life in such a visceral way. Reading this novel is like looking at a black-and-white photograph that has been colored in and suddenly realizing that those people who were once in the shadows also dreamed, cried, and breathed just like us.” – CLAIRE FULLER