Cover of An Ice-Cream War

An Ice-Cream War

1914. In a hotel room in German East Africa, American farmer Walter Smith dreams of Theodore Roosevelt. As he sleeps, a railway passenger swats at flies, regretting her decision to return to the Dark Continent—and to her husband. On a faraway English riverbank, a jealous Felix Cobb watches his brother swim, and curses his sister-in-law-to-be. And in the background of the world's daily chatter: rumors of an Anglo-German conflict, the likes of which no one has ever seen.

Read more

In An Ice-Cream War, William Boyd brilliantly evokes the private dramas of a generation upswept by the winds of war. After his German neighbor burns his crops—with an apology and a smile—Walter Smith takes up arms on behalf of Great Britain. And when Felix's brother marches off to defend British East Africa, he pursues, against his better judgment, a forbidden love affair. As the sons of the world match wits and weapons on a continent thousands of miles from home, desperation makes bedfellows of enemies and traitors of friends and family. By turns comic and quietly wise, An Ice-Cream Wardeftly renders lives capsized by violence, chance, and the irrepressible human capacity for love.

Audience
adult
Length
long · 416 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked An Ice-Cream War? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked An Ice-Cream War. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Higher Ground Shares Africa, fiction, historical fiction
  2. Confederates Shares historical fiction, fiction, booker prize
  3. Pieces Of Light Shares Africa, fiction, historical fiction
  4. Master Georgie Shares historical fiction, fiction, war

“People who read An Ice-Cream War tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Military Philosophers
  2. Free onlineFree Three Soldiers
  3. The Ship
  4. Williwaw

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction about colonialism), start with these.”

  1. The African Queen
  2. Toby's Room
  3. Covenant With Death
  4. Life Class

“If it was the Africa that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Sum of Things
  2. My Heart is Not My Own
  3. Thirty Girls
  4. Something Of Value

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Things We Cherished
  2. Birthmark
  3. Cry Father
  4. BirthControl