William Boyd’s sparkling debut novel on the grimly comic side of war

An Ice-Cream War was the debut novel of William Boyd who would go on to be recognized as ‘the finest storyteller of his generation’ (Sebastian Faulks). It follows the fortunes of several wildly different characters - including an expat farmer and a young English aristocrat - as they are swept up in the fighting in German East Africa during the First World War, their lives converging amid battle, betrayal, love, comedy and tragedy.