A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms is a war novel by Ernest Hemingway, first published in 1929. It is set during the Italian campaign of World War I and told in the first person by an American serving as a lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. Against that backdrop, the novel follows a relationship that develops between the narrator and an English nurse, without giving away where the story goes.

This is a good fit for readers who want a restrained, direct novel where war and private life stay closely tied together. If you like writing that relies on clear detail, emotional distance, and an unsentimental view of a difficult period, this one will likely work for you. It also connects naturally to Hemingway’s broader style: spare, precise, and focused on what is left unsaid as much as what is on the page.