Set during World War I on an isolated country estate just outside London, Rebecca West s haunting novel The Return of the Soldier follows Chris Baldry, a shell-shocked captain suffering from amnesia, as he makes a bittersweet homecoming to the three women who have helped shape his life. Will the devoted wife he can no longer recollect, the favorite cousin he remembers only as a childhood friend, and the poor innkeeper s daughter he once courted leave Chris to languish in a safe, dreamy past or will they help him recover his memory so that he can return to the front? The answer is...

Two young women come of age in a novel "unbelievably rich in character, incident, and observation." -- The Boston Globe
Their childhood and adolescence were overshadowed by the Great War. Now, in its lonely aftermath, Rose and Mary Aubrey find themselves deprived of the guiding strength of their cousin Rosamund when she marries a man of dubious morals and intolerable vulgarity. Retreating to an inn on the Thames, they find a haven of security with old friends.
Into this fragile Eden a new, disruptive force is introduced; Rose discovers the power of love, and, confronting her...