Cupid in Africa

Bertram Greene was born to command soldiers. The only problem is that he'd rather command words. In 1914, as Europe marches toward war, Bertram faces a far more personal battle: his father, Major Hugh Walsingham Greene, expects a son who embodies the family's distinguished military tradition. Instead, he has a young man drawn to scholarship and art, more comfortable with books than bullets. When Bertram receives his commission and is shipped to India then Africa, he must transform himself into something he doubts he can become: a soldier capable of leading men into the crude realities of warfare. Wren's 1920 novel is at once a thrilling adventure of the British Empire at war and an intimate portrait of a son's struggle to earn his father's respect while staying true to himself. It explores duty versus identity, the brutal testing ground of combat, and whether a man can honor both his heritage and his heart.